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ANNALS OF 

OLD 
MANHATTAN 

1609 — 1664 

By 

JULIA M. COLTON 

Author of 
Annals of Switzerland 

With numerous illustrations 

Brentan 0'^ s 
New York 



THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS, 
Twu Contiij Reosived 

OCT. lib 1902 

CoPVWOffT EHTHY 

OtASS CtXXa No. 

1-^ ^ s r 

COI^Y B. 



f^^^ 
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Copyright y igoi^ 
by Brentano s 



The Heintzemann Press Boston 



ro 

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Contents 


Page 




Foreword 


ix 


/ 


Concerning the Manahatas 


3 


// 


A Record of Events 


13 


/// 


In the days of Minuit 


29 


IF 


Some Prominent Persons in the 






Village of New Amsterdam 


53 


V 


T^ he ^^ Comedian'' Van T wilier 


69 


VI 


The Early Administration of 






William Kieft 


89 


VII 


A Chapter of Disgraceful Deeds 


lOI 


VIII 


The Indian War- Whoop 


119 


IX 


Peaceful Progress 


135 


X 


The Honorable Peter Stuyvesant 


149 


XI 


Under the City Fathers 


177 


XII 


The Coming of the English 


21 1 



«u« 



Illustrations 



Pearl Street in the Seventeenth Century 

Frontispiece 



Indian Village of the Manahatas 


I 


Old Dutch House in Pearl Street 


36 


Map of New Nether land 


52 


View of Fort Amsterdam 


69 


View of New Amsterdam 


100 


Governor s House and Church 


135 


The ''Graft" or Canal 


142 


Site of the Battery in 1656 


176 


The Stadt Huys 


200 


Governor Stuyvesant' s House (The 




Whitehall) 


21 I 


View of the Schoeinge or Sheet Piling 


216 


The Block House and City Gate 


220 


Governor Stuyvesanf s House {in the 




Bouwerie) 


230 


Map of Original Grants 


232 



y 



vm 



Foreword 



??3?P?3?3': 



I 



^AT" the brief records contained in the 
'^following pages, the consideration of 
<S some interesting but disputed points 
fet5t3t5t5ti^ of history has been intentionally omit- 
ted, for the annals of a country should present 
statements of fact only. Was Verrazzano the 
Florentine, with the French expedition of 1524, 
the first to discover our Hudson, or did the sturdy 
Icelander, or the restless Viking at an earlier 
period, fnd safety upon its sheltered shores ? Did 
Fstevan Gomez, the Spaniard, ascend the river 
in 1^2^, or fean Allefonsce, the French pilot 
of Saintonge, in 1542.^ These are questions that 
must still be accorded a place in the realm where 
*^ doctors disagreed 

Whether ^*Norumbega" the mythical was the 
Penobscot or the North River, or, indeed, whether 



tx 



Foreword 

the name represented a river or dry land, cannot 
be stated with assurance, and, therefore, reaching 
forward unto the things that are beyond, this 
book atte?npts only to present, as clearly and con- 
cisely as it may, the true itory of the Dutch in 
Old Manhattan. 

y. M. C. 
Brooklyn, N. T., 1902. 



X 







o 



OLD MANHArrAN 



ANNALS OF 
OLD MANHATTAN 

I 

Concerning the Manahatas 

|******^ST R A D I T I O N, long current 
S yV §^"^ong Indian tribes, told of a re- 
^ / \ t» mote period when a calm translu- 
g^^^^^^^^ cid lake surrounded the fair island 
of Manahata. Gold and silver fishes abounded 
in the lake ; fruit and flowers were inexhaust- 
ible upon the land ; and above all brooded 
the spirit of the sovereign god, Manitto! But 
suddenly an irruption of the great river laid 
waste the peaceful spot ; the roadway opened 
to the sea, and amid the rush and roar of tidal 
waters the protecting god took flight. 

On that rocky canoe-shaped island, envi- 
roned by salt rivers and a beautiful bay, dwelt 
the quivered and plumed tribe of the Man- 
ahatas. An offshoot of the great Algonquin 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

nation of Lenni-Lenape, they were a hardy, 
broad-shouldered race, tall, lithe and intelli- 
gent. Industrious fishermen, they held a com- 
munity of interest in nets and boats, and in 
the barter of dried or sunscorched fish, for 
which inland tribes were eager. They had 
gained some knowledge of agriculture, and 
after their own fashion had acquired epicu- 
rean tastes. Food was so carefully and skill- 
fully prepared that in the days of the Dutch 
occupation of the land, experienced house- 
wives were glad to imitate the palatable In- 
dian dishes of suppaen, succotash and yockey, 
and to learn from the squaws a recipe for the 
preparation of a popular beverage made from 
hickory-nuts and walnuts, pounded to a pulp 
and stirred into sparkling spring water. If they 
possessed the gifts of their kindred in the 
north, the Manahatas may have cultivated 
the fine arts, for in John Josselyn's record of 
voyages to the New England coast (1638 to 



Concerning the Manahatas 

1663) he describes the Indians of that locahty 
as poets whose formal speeches were uttered 
in rhymed couplets, and as vocal musicians 
who at marriages and feastings used " many 
pretty, odd, barbarous tunes." 

Concerning the genesis of the name " Man- 
hattan" many theories are extant. A plaus- 
ible and interesting hypothesis traces the root 
through words which in various Indian dia- 
lects signify an island : Menatan, a7iy small 
island ; Menates, the small island ; Menate, 
or Manhatte, a small island. If this derivation 
of the name is correct the origin of the dis- 
tinctive tribal cognomen must be attributed 
to the place of abode. 

A letter written in 1626 by De Resieres, 
the secretary to the governor of New Neth- 
erland, pictures, as he knew them, the In- 
dians of Manhattan Island, and describes some 
of their festivities and amusements. A popu- 
lar game called "sennaca" was played with 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

round rushes, which, we are told, " they un- 
derstand how to shuffle and deal as though 
they were playing with cards, and with which 
they win from each other all they possess." 

Commenting upon the Indian marriage cus- 
toms, De Resieres records that when an In- 
dian made up his mind to marry he began to 
collect sewant, and having secured a reason- 
able quantity, he visited the maiden of his 
choice and in the presence of her nearest rel- 
atives declared his wishes, and entered into 
negotiations concerning the amount of se- 
want he must give for a bridal present. That 
point being settled, he added to the gift " all 
the Dutch beads he possessed and all sorts of 
gewgaws." 

After these preliminaries were arranged the 
man went hunting, and the Indian maiden 
sat with a blanket over her head, looking at 
no one during six long weeks. At the expira- 
tion of that period the hunter returned bring- 



Concerning the Manahatas 

ing all the game he had taken, and a great 
feast was celebrated. From that time forth 
the bride was obliged to cultivate the ground 
and provide all the food for herself and her 
husband with the exception of the game or 
fish which it pleased him to secure. If her 
store failed, she was forced to buy with her 
sewant whatever was lacking. 

Through their extensive trade in fish and 
oysters, and their manufacture of the current 
money, the Manahatas became the most 
wealthy of the river tribes. Sewant, their pur- 
ple-tinted coin, as well as wampum, the com- 
mon white currency, was made by the squaws 
from shells found upon the shore, and these 
multiple fruits of their labor were not only 
used as a medium of trade, but, strung upon 
grasses, or fastened upon skins, were worn for 
ornament. The site of the forest-hidden vil- 
lage of the Manahatas was long made mani- 
fest to the Dutch by the deep debris of 



7 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

broken shells remaining on the hill called 
Catiemuts, two miles from the southern ex- 
tremity of the island. Not far from that hill 
was the " fathomless lake " which floated the 
Indian canoes, but, imprisoned by the pale- 
faced intruder, is now pressed beneath the 
stones of cellar floors.^ 

" Where the sea widens," a company of 
Manahatas were fishing, when first the Euro- 
pean stranger approached their shores. Their 
own stories tell that suddenly upon the distant 
waters an object appeared " such as had never 
been seen before ! " Hastening to the land they 
urged their chiefs to row out, and discover 
what the strange fish or animal might be ; but 
even as they looked it moved toward the shore. 
Runners were sent to carry the news to all in- 
habited localities, while from the east and the 
west the warriors were summoned home. 

' The head-waters of the lake were in Leonard Street, and the 
main spring is in the cellar of a house close to the building of the 
New York Life Insurance Co. — Mrs. Van Rensselaer. 



Concerning the Manahatas 

Assembled in solemn conclave the chiefs 
decided that the mysterious object was a large 
canoe, bearing back to their island the great 
god, Manitto, and deliberations concerning 
his reception were followed by the immedi- 
ate provision of meat for a sacrifice. Conjur- 
ors were ordered to determine what the visit 
might portend, but ere their task was ended 
runners arrived bringing word that the ap- 
proaching object was a house filled with liv- 
ing creatures. Perhaps Manitto was bringing 
them new kinds of game for hunting. Soon, 
in words they could not comprehend, they 
were hailed from the "house," and then a 
smaller house came ashore bringing men ; 
one among them robed all in red. Forming 
a circle the chiefs silently awaited the arrival 
of the strangers, and soon, with friendly sa- 
lutes, which were as cordially returned, the 
man in red with his attendants stood in their 
midst. But what a skin had Manitto and they 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

who had come with him ! Such had the Man- 
ahatas never seen before ! The servant of the 
red-clothed man brought a gourd, and from 
it poured a liquid which his master drank. 
Then the glass was again filled and handed 
to an Indian, but he only smelled it cautious- 
ly, and passed it on. Each Indian around the 
circle followed that example until a stalwart 
warrior was reached, who, stepping forward, 
declared the danger of offending the great 
Manitto by their refusal of his gift ; and, re- 
ceiving the glass drank off the contents. Soon 
he began to stagger,and, falling to the ground, 
sank into a sleep which the Indians mistook 
for death. But when he awoke, and declared 
that never before had he been so happy, the 
entire assembly desired to share his enjoy- 
ment, and all became intoxicated. 

The white-faced men then returned to their 
" house," but came again with beads, stock- 
ings, axes, hoes, etc., which they distributed 



lO 



Concerning the Manahatas 

among the Indians, and then by sign-language 
explained that they would return upon con- 
dition of receiving land whereon to sow seed. 
The next year they came, and all rejoiced. 
The Indians had worn the axes and hoes as 
ornaments, and used the stockings as tobacco- 
pouches ; but the whites put handles to the 
axes, and cut down trees, and with the hoes 
dug the ground. Then they proposed to stay, 
provided as much ground should be allotted 
them as the hide of a bullock would encom- 
pass. The hide was brought, the request 
granted, and the white men cut the hide into 
thin strips like a rope, and drew it far out 
and back again, encircling a great piece of 
ground. But the Indians, having enough land, 
would not contend, and the white men took 
possession.^ 

' For Indian account of the arrival of the whites see N. T. Hist. 
Soc. Coll., vol. I, zd Series. 



I I 



II 

A Record of Events. 1609 — 1626 

]^********|HE Dutch came to Manhattan 

T* Island in 1609, and journals kept 
$ by the voyagers note the friendly 
J^^^^^^^^ greeting of the Indians. But al- 
though Hudson found the country " as beau- 
tiful as any the foot of man had trod," the 
" Half Moon" could not tarry there, and re- 
ports of the rich products of the land failed 
to divert the East India Company from the 
pursuit of a northern route to Asia. There 
were traders in Holland, however, who were 
eager for a new enterprise, and Europe of- 
fered a ready market for such furs as Hud- 
son's square-sailed galliot had brought. A 
partnership was speedily arranged, and an- 
other Dutch vessel, under command of an 
officer of the East India Company, set sail 



13 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

for the country of the Manahatas. The In- 
dian river, Cohotatea, named by Hudson's 
men the River of the Mountains, was the 
desired goal, and upon its shores, in exchange 
for trinkets which the Indians coveted, a 
second cargo of rich furs was secured. 

In 1 6 1 1 , a third vessel ventured forth, char- 
tered by Hendrick Christiaenson, of Cleef, 
and Adriaen Block, and loaded with goods for 
exchange on commission. Again the Indians 
gave for beads and baubles, the skins the 
strangers sought; and two young chiefs of 
Manahata were induced to be the guests of 
the white men on the return voyage to Hol- 
land. A triumvirate of Amsterdam merchants 
then equipped for Block and Christiaenson 
two larger vessels, called the "Tiger " and the 
"Fortune," and from North Holland about 
the same time the "Little Fox," and the 
"Nightingale" went forth, commanded by 
Captain Thys Volckertsen and Captain John 



14 



A Record of Events 

Dewitt. Interest in the new enterprise in- 
creased so rapidly, that within three months 
the owners of the ** Tiger" and the "For- 
tune" equipped a third vessel, commanded 
by Captain Cornelis Jacobsen, and destined 
like the others for the fur trade. Christiaen- 
son explored the waters adj acent to Manhattan 
Island, making friends at Indian settlements, 
and bartering successfully for furs, while Block 
tarried near the entrance to the North River, 
One night in the autumn of 1 6 1 2, when the 
other ships were cruising in distant waters, 
the "Tiger" took fire at its anchorage and 
was completely destroyed." Block and his 
men, forced to seek shelter on shore, found 
a temporary sojourn among the Indians in- 
evitable, and erected, near the southern ex- 
tremity of the land, four small places of 
shelter, — the first homes of the Dutch upon 
Manhattan Island. 

^ Royal Archives of the Hague, August i8, 1614. 



15 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

During the winter a yacht was built, forty- 
four feet in length by eleven and a half in 
breadth of beam, and in the spring. Block set 
forth in this to explore Long Island Sound. 

Passing through the East River, he named 
it after a stream in Holland, "The Hellgat," 
a word which Fiske felicitously points out 
as appropriately signifying a clear passage- 
way, although with a quite different inter- 
pretation it has been retained to distinguish 
the eastern end of the channel. Skirting the 
coasts of Connecticut and the "Red Island," 
and ascending the "Fresh River" as far as 
the present city of Hartford, Block proceeded 
eastward to Cape Cod, where, unexpectedly, 
he met Christiaenson, and, as that mariner 
was disposed to continue his exploration of 
unfamiliar shores, vessels were exchanged, 
Christiaenson taking the new yacht, fitly 
named "The Restless," while Block guided 
the "Fortune" to Holland. 



i6 



A Record of Events 

After Block's return a company of Amster- 
dam merchants petitioned the States General 
for a special license to trade in the region be- 
tween Chesapeake Bay and Cape Cod, and 
secured a charter granting them exclusive 
privileges during four successive voyages, pro- 
vided these were completed within three 
years from January i, 1615. In this charter 
the region was first distinguished as New 
Netherland; and while claim to an unlimited, 
undisclosed territory on the west was asserted, 
boundaries on the north, east, and south were 
defined by the forty-fifth parallel. Cape Cod, 
and the Delaware or South River with the 
Bay, explored in 16 14 by Captain Cornelis 
Mey. 

The New Netherland Company lost no 
time in sending out their vessels. The River 
of the Mountains, also known as the North 
River, was re-christened the " Mauritius," in 
honor of Prince Maurice, and at its mouth. 



17 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

on the lower end of Manhattan Island, a log 
building was erected, designed to serve both 
as a storehouse and a place of refuge in time 
of danger. Though it possessed slight means 
of defence, this structure was dignified by the 
name of Fort Manhattan, and near it, a few 
huts were built to shelter the guardians of its 
stores. The Dutch regarded Manhattan Island 
as a trading-post only, and evinced no dis- 
position to colonize its shores, until the enter- 
prise of the English awakened a fear that by 
occupancy of the soil that nation might gain 
the "nine necessary points" of law, and de- 
prive Holland of her lucrative intercourse 
with the Indians. 

The charter of the New Netherland Com- 
pany expired at the close of 1617, and the 
States General refused to extend its trading 
privileges by more than a yearly license. 
Efforts were made to form a new corpora- 
tion to be known as the West India Com- 



18 



A Record of Events 

pany, but the project was so strenuously op- 
posed by influential members of the East India 
Company that little could be accomplished. 

A proposition to colonize Manhattan Island 
was presented by the Rev. John Robinson, 
on behalf of the English dissenters at Ley- 
den, who were appreciative of the benefits 
received under Dutch protection, but desired 
to secure for their children an environment 
distinct from any to be obtained in Holland. 
They had received from the London Com- 
pany a patent authorizing them to settle in 
Virginia, but religious freedom was not 
guaranteed, and that was an essential con- 
dition. 

The Dutch Trading Company favorably 
inclined to the project of the English, of- 
fered free transportation, and promised to 
supply each family of emigrants with cattle; 
but for the success of the enterprise the sanc- 
tion of the government was necessary, and 



19 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

that could not be secured. The States General 
rejected the proposition, fearing, perhaps, to 
establish people of English blood upon terri- 
tory already claimed by the English crown. 

The evidence that an English ship touched 
at Fort Manhattan in 1620 has been ques- 
tioned; but Captain Thomas Dermer is 
credited with that visit, and is reputed to 
have warned the Dutch off English soil, de- 
claring that he was the discoverer of Long 
Island Sound, and King James its sovereign. 
The fact is undisputed that Dermer peti- 
tioned the King for a grant of lands adjacent 
to the waters of the Sound, and the English 
ambassador at the Hague was directed to re- 
monstrate against Dutch occupation of that 
territory; but beyond the interest evoked by 
a spirited diplomatic correspondence, little 
attention was given to the affair. 

Meanwhile, the projects of the West India 
Company increased in popularity, and in 



20 



A Record of Events 

1 62 1 the desired charter was obtained. It 
guaranteed a monopoly of trade with New 
Netherland, and within the boundaries of 
that province it conferred upon the Company 
authority almost royal. By their decree, forts 
might be built, treaties made, and justice ad- 
ministered, though an appointment of a chief 
executive and a formal declaration of war 
were subject to the approval of the States 
General. 

The West India Company represented a 
community of interests, and its colonial pro- 
jects were extensive. Settlements were to be 
planted upon the Mauritius, the South, and 
the Fresh Rivers.' Brazil was to be wrested 
from Spain, and a portion of the African 
coast was to be secured, whence slaves might 
be transported to the districts where service 
was required. The responsibilities for these 
enterprises were divided among five branches 

' The Hudson, the Delaware, and the Connecticut. 



21 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

or boards established in various cities of Hol- 
land, each branch holding in charge the 
affairs of a specified territory. To the Amster- 
dam chamber were intrusted all matters per- 
taining to Manhattan Island, and by a natural 
sequence the post there established was soon 
known as New Amsterdam. 

Up the North River, not far from the site 
of Albany, Fort Nassau had been built by 
earlier traders, and there Jacob Eelkens held 
command until floods made a change of posi- 
tion necessary. Then a stronghold was estab- 
lished somewhat further down the stream, 
where, in 1618, Eelkens held an important 
conference with the chiefs of the Five Na- 
tions, and consummated a treaty which ren- 
dered the tribes of that region steadfast allies 
of the Dutch. In 1624 the locality of the 
post was again changed, and the stronghold 
then built was known as Fort Orange, while 
the name Fort Nassau was transferred to de- 



22 



A Record of Events 

fenses on the South River, opposite the pres- 
ent city of Philadelphia. 

Bound by a provision of their charter to 
"advance the peopling of unsettled lands," 
the West India Company in 1623, sent to 
the "wild coast" of New Netherland, thirty 
families of Walloons, a Protestant people of 
French extraction. The greater number of 
these industrious persons were destined for 
the settlement at Fort Nassau, but eight men 
were landed on Manhattan Island,' and Cap- 

' Deposition of Catelyn Trice, taken in 1688 (New York Col. 
Mss.): — '* Catelyn Trico doth Testify and Declare that in ye year 
1623, she came into this country with a Ship called ye Unity, 
whereof was commander Arien Jorise belonging to ye West India 
Company, being ye first Ship yt came here for ye s^^ Company. 
As soon as they came to Mannatans, now called N. Yorke, they 
sent Two families and six men to Harford River, and Two Families 
and eight men to Delaware River, and eight men they left at N. 
Yorke to take Possession, and ye Rest of ye Passengers went with 
ye Ship as farr as Albany which they then called fort Orange. — 
Ye s<^ Deponent lived in Albany three years, all which time ye 
Indians were all as quiet as Lambs and came and Traded with all 
ye Freedom Imaginable ; in ye year 1 626, ye Deponent came from 
Albany and settled at N. Yorke where she lived afterwards for 
many years and then came to Long Island." 



23 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

tain Cornells Jacobsen Mey was made the 
first director over all the territory included 
within the jurisdiction of the Company. 

During the year 1624, the income from 
the New Netherland fur-trade amounted to 
twenty-eight thousand guilders, and the 
West India Company, in conclave assembled, 
decided that a satisfactory recompense might 
be anticipated for greater efforts to people the 
land. Inducements to emigrate were publicly 
offered, and in response, six families and a 
number of single men volunteered. In three 
ships and a yacht, these forty-five persons were 
promptly conveyed to Manhattan Island, with 
their household goods, farming implements, 
and one hundred and three head of cattle. 
A member of this company, William Ver- 
hulst, was made the second director, Captain 
Mey having been summoned back to Hol- 
land. 

The consummation, in 1625, of a treaty 



24 



A Record of Events 

of alliance between England and Holland 
seemed to promise greater security to the 
Dutch colonies in America, and the West 
India Company proceeded to formulate a 
regular system of government for New 
Netherland. They soon sent over as execu- 
tor of their authority, Peter Minuit of Wesel, 
in Westphalia, who reached Fort Manhattan 
May 4, 1626, in the ship ** Sea-Mew." 

Before organizing his government, Minuit 
took measures to secure for the Company a 
legal title to the land, and having summoned 
to the southern shore the leading Indian 
chiefs, he made known to them his wish to 
barter for their island. With unfeigned de- 
light the savages viewed the treasure offered 
in beads, knives, and implements of agricul- 
ture, and quickly concluded the bargain. In 
exchange for goods valued at sixty gilders, or 
about twenty-four dollars, Manhattan Island 
passed into the possession of the Dutch. 



25 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

Letter from Peter Jans Schaghen^ Deputy in the 
States General^ to the West India Company. 
{Royal Archives at the Hague.) 
High Mighty Sirs: 

Here arrived the ship "The Arms of Amster- 
dam," which sailed from New Netherlands out of 
the Mauritius River, on September 23 ; they re- 
port that our people there are of good courage, and 
live peaceably. They have bought the island Man- 
hattes from the wild men for the value of sixty 
guilders. It is eleven thousand morgens in extent. 
They sowed all their grain in the middle of May, 
and harvested it the middle of August. They send 
thence samples of summer grain, such as wheat, rye, 
barley, oats, buckwheat, canary seed, small beans 
and flax. 
The cargo of the aforesaid ship is : 
7,246 beaver skins. 
1785^ otter skins. 
675 otter skins. 
48 minck skins. 
^6 wild cat skins. 
2,2 minck skins. 
34 rat skins. 



26 



A Record of Events 

Many logs of oak and nut wood (hickory). 
Herewith be ye High Mighty Sirs commended to 
the Almighty's grace. 
In Amsterdam, Nov. 5, 1626. 

Your High Might's, 

Obedient, 

P. SCHAGHEN. 



27 



Ill 

In the Days of Minuit. 1 6 2 6 - 1 6 3 2 

|********g NARROW, rocky point of land, 
5 A jj: traversed by purling brooks, and 
S / \ $ broken by ocean inlets; a chain 
S*****^^^of low hills in the background, 
covered with forests of hickory and chest- 
nut; valleys sheltering maize fields and wig- 
wams ; and wide marshes beyond which 
roamed wolves and bears and panthers. Such 
was the territory that Peter Minuit had pur- 
chased, and where, within the semblance of 
a fort, he was empowered on behalf of the 
West India Company to exercise authority 
over the province of New Netherlands. 

The responsibilities of government were 
shared by an advisory council of five mem- 
bers, who were appointed in Amsterdam ; a 
secretary of the council board, and a schout- 



29 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

fiscal; the last-mentioned title implying a 
promiscuous mingling of the responsibilities 
pertaining to the offices of sheriff, collector 
of the customs, and church beadle. The laws 
were formulated in the Amsterdam Chamber, 
but local regulations might be made by the 
director and his council, subject to approval 
by the Company's agents in Holland. 

The settlement on Manhattan Island com- 
prised about thirty small houses clustered 
around the fort, and tenanted by Dutch, 
Walloons and English. Provided with as 
much land as they could cultivate, and ex- 
empt for ten years from taxation, the col- 
onists contentedly tended their flocks and 
herds, and raised their flax and rye and wheat, 
although denied a voice in the government, 
forbidden to engage in manufactures, and 
unable to obtain a permanent title to the spot 
upon which they built their homes. It is re- 
corded in the early history of a family, who. 



30 



In the Days of Minuit 

in 1626, came to New Netherland and were 
established as tobacco-planters in what is now 
Manhattan, that they were required to ac- 
knowledge the directors of the West India 
Company as their sovereign lords, and at the 
end of ten years after settlement, were to 
render "the just tenth part of the products 
wherewith God may bless the soil," and 
from that time forth annually " to deliver 
on account of the dwelling and house-lot, a 
pair of capons to the director-general for the 
holidays." 

Peter Minuit was an active, energetic man, 
firm in temper, friendly in disposition, just 
and honorable in his dealings. The fact 
that he was a native of Westphalia has given 
plausibility to the statement that he was of 
German birth ; but Wesel, just over the 
boundary line of Holland was, during the re- 
ligious persecutions of Alva, a place of refuge 
for the Dutch Protestants ; and as Minuit 



31 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

was a deacon in the church, composed prin- 
cipally of descendants of Dutch refugees, it is 
probable that his parents belonged to that 
company. His government of New Nether- 
land, though despotic in theory, granted, in 
practice, entire religious liberty and a fair 
amount of political freedom. The director 
had power to collect fines, and to administer 
justice up to the limit of the death penalty ; 
but where that was imposed, the criminal 
must be sent to Holland for the execution of 
his sentence. This law must have been abro- 
gated somewhat later, for under subsequent 
governors there are records of executions in 
New Amsterdam. 

Having secured possession of the territory, 
established friendlyrelations with the Indians, 
and organized his government, Minuit's next 
undertaking was the erection of a fort for 
the protection of his domain. He had brought 
to the colony a competent engineer, Kryn 



32 



In the Days of Minuit 

Frederijke, under whose direction the work 
was promptly begun. Fort Amsterdam was 
to have " four angles" and to be faced with 
solid stone ; but owing to the difficulty of 
procuring either expert workmen or suita- 
ble material, the structure when completed 
proved but a precarious refuge, and quite 
unfitted for a stronghold. 

During the year 1626, the arrival of several 
vessels with colonists increased the popula- 
tion of the little settlement to about two hun- 
dred. A warehouse was erected, and in one 
corner of that substantial stone building was 
opened the first village store. The next nota- 
ble structure was a mill, which was worked 
by horse-power. Its loft was set apart for re- 
ligious purposes, and the building was adorned 
by a tower, wherein bells, captured from the 
Spaniards of Puerto-Rico, sounded a summons 
to worship. Two "visitors of the sick," Se- 
bastian Jansz Crol, and Jan Huyck, who had 



33 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

been sent from Holland with Minuit, con- 
ducted a service every Sunday, until the ar- 
rival of the first regularly ordained minister, 
the Rev. Jonas Michaelius. A letter written 
by Dominie Michaelius soon after his arrival 
at Manhattan, to the Rev. Adriaenus Smou- 
tius in Holland, presents an uninviting picture 
of life in the colony in 1628. He describes 
the Indians as "proficient in all wickedness 
and godlessness; as thievish and treacherous 
as they are tall," and he complains that "there 
are no horses, cows, nor laborers to be ob- 
tained for money," and ^^xvo refreshment of 
butter, milk, etc., to be found." Household 
arrangements were certainly lacking in lux- 
ury in those early days, and although the 
comforts of life in Holland exceeded those 
considered essential in other countries of Eu- 
rope, yet the emigrants to New Amsterdam 
lived in a style extremely primitive. Minuit, 
his secretary, De Rasieres, and Sheriff Lam- 



34 



In the Days of Minuit 

po, during three years occupied one house. 
The dwelHngs were built of logs, and their 
thatched roofs proved sometimes a precari- 
ous protection, easily inflammable under the 
scorching rays of the summer sun. The letter 
of Dominie Michaelius alludes to "a general 
conflagration," in which the colonists lost 
many of their possessions. 

But in the seventeenth century, the Dutch 
had already gathered experience in the 
science of colonization, and better than other 
Europeans knew how to provide for their 
people. The New England settlers faced 
privations, and the Virginia colonists braved 
perils, of which thp early inhabitants of New 
Netherland had no experience. When free 
from fear of the Indians, theirs was an un- 
eventful, but an industrious and cheerful life, 
and soon the lively little hamlet, with its 
windmills whirling on the hilltops, formed a 
pleasant picture. There the stout Dutchmen 



35 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

were placidly puffing their long pipes; the 
thrifty vrouwen, in short gowns and spotless, 
close-fitting caps were busy with household 
cares; while the blithe young girls, wending 
their way to the brook, with flax to soften for 
the distaff, trod so often that winding path, 
that it won its name, "The Maiden's Lane." 
About the time of Minuit's arrival, war 
broke out between the Indian tribes of Mo- 
hicans and Mohawks, among the hills of the 
upper Hudson. The Mohawks sought aid 
from the commander of Fort Orange, who 
foolishly promised partisanship, and with six 
of his men marched forth upon the war- 
path. About a mile from the fort a party of 
Mohawks was encountered, and Commander 
Krieckenbeck was killed, with three of his 
men, one of whom, says the old record, "the 
Indians devoured, after having well cooked 
him."' 

^ Documentary History of New Netherlands. 



36 




■':-:% 



m 




S'^-^;fSi«»ffi3R?r5i! 



ivVfiir,;. ,^^i 



OLD DUTCH HOUSE JN PEJRL STREET 

Built 1626. Rebuilt i6gj. Demolished 1828 



In the Days of Minuit 

Anxious for a continuance of trade with 
the Dutch, the Mohawks sent envoys to Fort 
Orange, bearing excuses for their conduct ; 
and Minuit, wisely accepting their protesta- 
tions of friendship, renewed the old treaty 
of alliance, and sent Peter Barentsen to fill 
Krieckenbeck's place. But the incident in- 
duced a feeling of insecurity, and the gover- 
nor, deeming discretion the better part of 
valor, soon transferred to Manhattan Island 
the families settled at Fort Orange, and left 
at that post only the garrison of sixteen 
soldiers. 

With the view of promoting advantageous 
intercourse between the Dutch andtheir Eng- 
lish neighbors at Plymouth, Minuit, in 1 627, 
opened a correspondence with Governor 
Bradford. The letters written by the secre- 
tary, De Rasieres, were transcribed in both 
Dutch and French, and conveyed in cour- 
teous terms many sentiments of esteem and 



37 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

good will for the English. In the first letter, 
which is dated " From the Manhatas in ye 
fort Amsterdam, Mch 9, 1627," De Ra- 
sieres, in the name of the director, proposed 
an exchange of serviceable Dutch commod- 
ities for beaver and otter skins, or other 
merchandise in which the Plymouth settlers 
might be disposed to traffic. Governor Brad- 
ford, in his history of Plymouth Plantation 
alludes to "the complementall titles" by 
which he was addressed, but in his own 
missive of March 19, which he terms his 
" obliging answer," while deprecating the 
" over-high titles " accorded to himself and 
his associates, he pays his respects to Minuit 
and the council by saluting them as " Your 
Honours, Worships, and Wisdoms." After 
expressing joy in the consummation of the 
treaty of alliance between England and Hol- 
land, and referring to the kindness received 
in Leyden by many members of his colony. 



38 



In the Days of Minuit 

Governor Bradford declared his disposition 
to trade with the Dutch whenever his people 
should be in need of the goods proffered, and 
desired to be informed how they would take 
"beaver by ye pound and otter by ye skine." 
But, notwithstanding the friendship ex- 
pressed for the people of New Amsterdam, the 
letter distinctly intimated the English gover- 
nor's conviction that the Dutch were trespass- 
ers, and Minuit was warned that there were 
"divers others unto whom commissions have 
been granted as to us, to expulse or make 
prize of any strangers who shall attempt to 
trade or plant within their limits." Such sug- 
gestive language naturally evoked another 
letter from the director of the New Nether- 
land, vindicating the rights of the Dutch to 
their territory, and, as Governor Bradford 
made no haste to reply, a special messenger 
was dispatched to Plymouth, who bore a 
third missive containing reiterated assurances 



39 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

of friendliness, and, as an evidence of Minuit's 
personal good will to the governor, the gift 
of "a rundlet of sugar and two Holland 
cheeses." 

Governor Bradford's response to these at- 
tentions was couched in phrases as formally 
and notably courteous as the other letters, 
and asserted a disposition to live in friendly 
association with the NewNetherland Colony. 
His opinions respecting the English claims 
were not revoked, but he requested that an 
ambassador be sent to Plymouth for the ad- 
justment of boundary lines. Minuit deter- 
mined to dispatch a formal embassy, and 
appointed De Rasieres envoy. Attended by 
soldiers and trumpeters, and carrying articles 
of traffic, the secretary embarked in the ship 
" Nassau," which conveyed him to Mano- 
met ' at the head of Buzzards Bay, and about 
eight miles from Plymouth. From that point 

' Now Monument Beach in the township of Sandwich. 



40 



In the Days of Minuit 

he despatched a courier with a message to 
Governor Bradford, asking that a way be 
provided for accomplishing the remainder 
of the journey with as little fatigue as pos- 
sible, as he " could not travill so farr over- 
land." A boat was accordingly sent through 
a shallow creek running inland from Cape 
Cod Bay to within four or five miles of 
Manomet, and De Rasieres was safely landed 
at Plymouth, *' honourably attended with a 
noyse of trumpeters." 

Bradford alludes to his guest as " a man of 
fair and genteel behaviour," and that he was 
politic we know, for he himself states that he 
sold sewan to the Pilgrims, " because the 
seeking after sewan is prejudicial to us, inas- 
much as they would by so doing discover the 
trade in furs, which if they were to find out, 
it would be a great trouble to us to maintain ; 
for they already dare that if we will not leave 
ofl^ dealing with that people they will be 



41 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

obliged to use other means, and if they do 
that now, while they are yet ignorant how 
the case stands, what will they do when they 
get a notion of it ? " 

The secretary seems to have proved a skill- 
ful diplomatist, for after spending a few days 
at Plymouth, during which it is recorded 
that he " demeaned himself to his own 
credit," he was made the bearer of another 
letter from Bradford to Minuit, in which, 
although reiterating his desire that the Dutch 
should "clear the title of their planting in 
these parts which his Majesty hath by patent 
granted to divers his nobles," the governor 
of Plymouth made no distinct reference to 
the disputed boundary lines, but, professing 
himself "tied in obligation" to the Dutch, 
promised to perform all good offices toward 
the colonists of New Netherlands. If friendly 
zeal for the prosperity of his neighbors was 
not exaggerated in its expression, the worthy 



42 



In the Days of Minuit 

governor must have been gratified by the 
edict of King Charles, which soon afterward 
threw open all English ports to vessels of the 
West India Company ; but in view of the 
intimation that the Dutch title to their land 
might still be disputed, Minuit wrote to 
Holland, asking for a military support. 

Meanwhile the directors of the West India 
Company complained that their New Neth- 
erland enterprise was less profitable than other 
investments, the expenses attendant upon the 
protection of so small a colony often averag- 
ing more than the income it yielded. Traders 
visited the coast, but the farmers of Holland 
found their homes in that country too satis- 
factory to be abandoned. Dutch ingenuity 
devised a new project, however, which Dutch 
enterprise speedily carried into execution. By 
a charter framed by the Company, and con- 
firmed by the States General in 1629, a tract 
of land not exceeding sixteen miles on one 



43 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

side of a navigable river, or eight miles on 
both sides, and extending inland indefinitely, 
was offered to any member of the Company 
who at his own expense, and within four 
years, should found a colony of fifty adults. 
The entire district of the New Netherland 
was offered for this enterprise, with the ex- 
ception of Manhattan Island, over which the 
Company, as a unit, retained exclusive pro- 
prietorship. 

The founder of a colony, having secured his 
claim upon the land by giving satisfactory 
compensation to the Indians, received the 
title of patroon, and was accorded certain 
fixed privileges. He was free to trade in every- 
thing except furs, under the sole restriction 
that goods should first be landed at Fort 
Manhattan, where port-charges of five per 
cent were claimed by the Company. All fish 
in the sea and minerals in the mountains be- 
longed to the patroon ; and his colonists, over 



44 



In the Days of Minuit 

whom he might exercise the rights of a feu- 
dal lord, were bound to his service for a stip- 
ulated period. The patroon bore all expenses 
of preparing the land and building the houses 
and barns, but he received for these a fixed 
rental in stock or produce, in addition to his 
legitimate share as over-lord, and the farmer 
could not sell any product of the estate be- 
fore offering it to the patroon. The colonists 
were exempt from taxation, and were prom- 
ised by the Company protection from the In- 
dians, and an adequate number of negro 
servants ; while each patroon was under ob- 
ligations to provide for the support of a 
minister and a schoolmaster, and was respon- 
sible during a certain length of time for the 
supply of cattle, wagons, and utensils of labor. 
After the estate had become self-supporting 
a division of net-profits was promised to the 
settlers. 
Before the conditions of this Charter of 



45 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

Freedoms and Exemptions had been publicly 
promulgated, Godyn and Blommaert, two 
directors of the Amsterdam Chamber, dis- 
patched an agent to purchase land from the 
Indians on the South River, and Kilian Van 
Rensselaer, a wealthy merchant of Holland, 
bartered through another emissary for a wide 
district on the Mauritius. When these trans- 
actions were revealed, the dissatisfaction 
among other shareholders in the Company 
was so vehemently expressed, that a division 
of the appropriated territory was rendered 
imperative. Van Rensselaer's estate on the west 
side of the Mauritius, "stretching two days 
into the interior," and on the east side, north 
and south of Fort Orange, "far into the wil- 
derness," was separated into five shares, three 
of which were yielded to other members of 
the Company, Van Rensselaer reserving for 
himself only two-fifths of his original pur- 
chase, although the entire district retained 



46 



In the Days of Minuit 

the title of Rensselaerswijck. Wise provision 
was made on the estate of the first patroon for 
the prosperity of colonists, who were sent out 
from Holland in Van Rensselaer's own ships, 
with implements of agriculture and other 
articles necessary for their comfort. 

Into the partnership in lands on the South 
River, Godyn and Bloommaert received 
several new members, and David Petersen 
de Vries, an experienced mariner of Holland, 
having refused the proffered post of under- 
patroon, was admitted upon an equality with 
the directors of the Company. Michael Pauw 
secured the extensive district of Hoboken- 
Hacking, on the New Jersey shore, which 
he called Pavonia, as well as Staten Island, 
so named in honor of "the Staten" or States 
General. Pauw's colony, distinctively known 
as the "Commune," has been commemo- 
rated by the name given to the locality first 
settled, Communipauw. 



47 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

When the Indian chiefs who surrendered 
the land selected by the patroons had ap- 
peared before Minuit at Fort Amsterdam, 
and formally ceded the territory, the condi- 
tions prescribed by the Charter of Freedoms 
and Exemptions were considered to be ful- 
filled, and the patroons received their peculiar 
property-rights, involving conditions closely 
akin to those of the old feudal system. 

But ere long there were dissensions among 
the "Worshipful Directors" in Holland, for 
the patroons, tempted by the opportunities 
presented, began an independent barter for 
furs, with the Indians. The West India Com- 
pany, as a corporation, claimed the exclusive 
right to engage in that trade, and, as the 
patroons were members of the Company, 
the house was divided against itself. Among 
the directors of the Amsterdam Chamber, 
there were hot words, threatening hotter 
strife, until the matter in dispute was referred 



48 



In the Days of Minuit 

to the College of XIX, a committee of nine- 
teen directors, charged with the general super- 
intendence of affairs for the five boards of the 
Company. While they were deliberating, an 
incident, apparently irrelevant, precipitated a 
decision unfavorable to the patroons, and dis- 
astrous to the governor of New Amsterdam. 
With the ostensible aim of exhibiting the 
strength and size of timber grown in the col- 
ony, some ship-builders proposed to construct 
a mammoth vessel, and having secured en- 
couragement from Minuit, emphasized by 
the promise of payment from the Company's 
funds, they built at New Amsterdam a ship 
of eight hundred tons burden, which carried 
thirty guns. But when the bills for this costly 
enterprise were presented in Holland, there 
was widespread dissatisfaction, and numerous 
complaints concerning the Company's man- 
agement induced an investigation of their 
affairs by the States General. These "High 



49 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

Mightinesses" decided that the patroons de- 
served censure, having shown a greater in- 
terest in individual accumulation of wealth 
than in the welfare of the colonists, or the 
benefit of the associated Company, and their 
opinion was confirmed by the report pre- 
sented by De Rasieres, who, having fallen into 
disgrace with Minuit, had returned to Hol- 
land. The director general fell also into 
disfavor, being accused of partiality for the 
patroons, and of having ignored the illegality 
of their proceedings, and the West India Com- 
pany determined to recall him. 

Late in 1631, Conrad Notelman was sent 
to succeed Lampo as schout of New Nether- 
land, and by his hand the summons home was 
sent to Minuit. In the spring of 1632, the 
governor set sail from Fort Amsterdam, and 
for over a year the young colony was left 
without a head. 

Minuit's vessel, the " Eendragt," when off 



50 



In the Days of Minuit 

the English coast, encountered a fierce storm, 
and was driven into the port of Plymouth, 
where, on a charge of having traded illegally 
in the domain of the English sovereign, ves- 
sel, crew, and passengers were detained. Min- 
uit wrote for assistance to the States General 
of Holland, and in elaborately composed epis- 
tles the subject of sovereignty in America was 
discussed by their High Mightinesses and the 
Statesmen of England. The attention of the 
latter was, however, claimed by a complica- 
tion of affairs within their own realm, and, 
in the course of time, the "Eendragt" was 
quietly released, and Minuit reached Holland. 
After his testimony had been received, special 
agents were sent to the New Netherland to 
publish an edict, which forbade all private 
dealing in sewan, peltries, or maize. 



51 



IV 

Some Prominent Persons in the Village of 
New Amsterdam 

S********8N the spring of 1633, by the ship 
« I S^Zo^^herg," three notable per- 
$ JL ^sons arrived at Fort Amsterdam. 
^^^^^^^^^ They were Wouter Van Twiller, 
the new director, Dominie Bogardus, the 
second clergyman and Adam Rolantsen, the 
first schoolmaster. 

Van Twiller had been a clerk in the office 
of the West India Company at Amsterdam, 
and in the interests of his employers had 
made two previous voyages to America ; a 
fact that environed him with a nimbus of 
attributed knowledge, which shone irides- 
cent in the light of the seventeenth century, 
but has failed to endure the crucial tests of 
later times. He had married a niece of the 



53 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

patroon, Kilian Van Rensselaer, whose influ- 
ence in the Council of XIX, perhaps, pro- 
cured an appointment which provided an 
interested superintendent for the estates of 
Rensselaerswijck, if it failed to secure a com- 
petent governor for the colony of New 
Netherland. The new director was attended 
by one hundred and four soldiers, the first 
military force in the country, and as the 
" Zoutberg" brought also to port a Spanish 
caravel, captured on the ocean, the arrival 
was an event that aroused the enthusiasm 
of the people, who flocked to the fort with 
cordial greetings. 

Van Twiller's personality was not impres- 
sive ; Irving's vivid picture portrays him as 
" exactly five feet six inches in height, and 
six feet five inches in circumference," but 
perhaps a portrait more nearly exact may be 
conceived by the aid of contemporary testi- 
mony, which describes him as short and stout. 



54 



Some Prominent Persons 

with sandy hair and small blue eyes. He was 
kind-hearted and good-natured, but intellec- 
tually untrained and inefficient. Experienced 
in the duties of a tradesman only, he assumed 
his new office devoid of all practical knowl- 
edge of its responsibilities ; and by his hesi- 
tating decisions and irresolution in emer- 
gencies soon won the title of " Wouter the 
Waver er." 

Quite the reverse in temperament as well as 
in physique was Dominie Bogardus, a tall and 
stately man of " high character but hot tem- 
per." His eyes were of the ** dark and pierc- 
ing type," but mercy was mingled with justice 
in the expression of his mobile mouth. He 
was in no wise an exponent of " the poore 
parson of the towne," for the house built for 
his use, with the Company's money, was one 
of the most attractive in the little hamlet, and 
its front door was distinguished above others 
by the elegant adornment of a bright brass 



SS 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

knocker. Hints have echoed along historic 
corridors, concerning the convenient vicinity 
of this residence to the Company's brewery, 
and there are intimations that the good domi- 
nie sometimes pressed his principles with 
unwarranted force, until even the epithet 
"quarrelsome" was associated with his rev- 
erend name. It is certain that with Van Twil- 
ler he frequently differed in opinion, and it is 
recorded that once, from the pulpit, a pedi- 
gree the reverse of "complimentall" was as- 
cribed to the honorable director, and he was 
threatened with "a shaJce that would make 
him tremble." 

But the dominie was a man of many es- 
timable traits, and a powerful personality in 
the province. If he was relentless in the de- 
nunciation of conduct he disapproved, we 
may believe that he was actuated by a con- 
scientious sense of responsibility. Even to his 
declining years the strength of his convic- 



56 



Some Prominent Persons 

tions remained unimpaired, and we read of 
differences with Governor Kieft when feel- 
ing ran so high that drums were ordered to 
be beaten during sermon time to drown the 
preacher's voice. 

Although often at variance with the guard- 
ians of the law, the dominie claimed legal 
protection when needful, and records tell of 
"a female," who, for slandering the minister, 
was summoned to appear in the fort at the 
ringing of the bell, and compelled before 
governor and council to declare that " she 
knew the dominie to be honest and pious, 
and that she had lied falsely." 

For Dominie Bogardus the first church in 
New Amsterdam was erected; a plain wooden 
structure, situated on the north side of Parel 
Straat (Pearl Street), between the present 
lines of Broad and Whitehall Streets. It was 
built in 1633 with the Company's funds, and 
the congregation of fifty members was then 



SI 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

transferred from the mill-tower to a conse- 
crated edifice. 

Intellectual attributes seem to have been of 
secondary importance in the required quali- 
fications of a New Amsterdam schoolmaster, 
but the incumbent of that office was expected 
to supplement the work of the dominie by- 
acting as a worthy consoler of the sick, by 
" promoting religious worship " in the ca- 
pacities of precentor and church-clerk, and, 
by turning the hour-glass, to indicate to the 
preacher that the time allotted for a sermon 
had elapsed. 

Adam Roelantsen, the first schoolmaster, 
ran a turbulent career, amid many antago- 
nistic conditions, in which his conduct did 
not entitle him to the respect of the com- 
munity. Although he had no rivals in his 
profession, he failed to achieve either a rep- 
utation for scholarship or satisfactory pecu- 
niary reward for efforts to train the young 



58 



Some Prominent Persons 

burghers-elect, and, to supplement his slen- 
der stipend, he took in washing, perhaps 
finding relief from uncongenial pedagogic 
tasks in the athletic exercise that work im- 
posed. 

But unalloyed success did not immediately 
crown even this labor, for court archives of 
1638 record a lawsuit brought by the school- 
master against Gillies De Voocht, for pay- 
ment due for washing the defendant's linen, 
and judgment was rendered in favor of De 
Voocht, on the ground that the money was 
not due until the expiration of the year cov- 
ered by Roelantsen's contract to perform the 
work. 

But although the record states that "people 
did not speak well of him," the schoolmaster 
succeeded in winning the favor of a widow, 
who probably endowed him with some 
worldly goods, for after his marriage the 
laundry-business was relinquished, and, in 



59 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

1642, there is a record of his contract for a 
residence. In the stipulations for this domicile, 
thirty feet in length, eighteen in width, and 
eight in height, mention is made of two 
doors, a mantelpiece, an entry, three feet 
wide, a pantry, a staircase to the attic, and a 
bedstead. The last item seems to have formed 
a corporate part of a dwelling-house of the 
period, and was fitted into a recess in the side 
of the living-room, and hidden during the 
day behind closed doors. In many houses this 
bedstead was reserved for the accommodation 
of chance travelers to whom hospitality 
might thus be easily accorded. 

The year after his establishment as a prop- 
erty-holder, Roelantsen entered upon the civic 
duties of weighmaster in New Amsterdam, 
and a brief period of prosperity ensued, at- 
tended presumably by domestic happiness 
with his wife, Lyntje Martens, and four chil- 
dren. He purchased another lot of land and 



60 



Some Prominent Persons 

seems to have conducted himself in a way to 
win some measure of respect from his associ- 
ates, for he subsequently filled several public 
offices, while a successor occupied the peda- 
gogic chair. 

But again troubles arose. In 1646, upon his 
return from a visit to Holland, he refused to 
pay his passage money, on the ground that he 
had been promised free transportation in ex- 
change for his labors in aiding the sailors, 
and saying the prayers. This time Roelantsen 
shines as a victorious contestant, but only a 
few weeks did he exult in the triumph, for 
when again he was summoned before the 
court it was to receive censure for evil deeds, 
and having been condemned to suffer punish- 
ment by means of his own implements of 
torture, the ex-schoolmaster was publicly 
flogged. An additional clause in the sentence 
pronounced against him ordained that he 
should be banished from the colony, but this 



61 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

penalty was remitted out of consideration for 
the welfare of his children, whose mother had 
died before that date. 

In 1635, Roelof Jansz and his family came 
to New Amsterdam from the Van Rensselaer 
estate on the Mauritius. Jansz was one of the 
colonists sent to New Netherland in 1630, 
and, having served out his term under the 
patroon, he sought to improve his condition 
in the position of an independent settler on 
Manhattan Island. Fortune seemed to favor 
this ambition, as for some reason hitherto un- 
explained, the new comer was presented by 
Van Twiller with a bouwerie (farm) of sixty- 
two acres, adjoining ground reserved for the 
use of the director, and beginning about a 
mile from the fort.' Here Jansz built a house, 
but failed further to realize his earthly de- 
sires, for he died soon after the completion 
of the home, leaving his widow, Annetje, 

' O'Callaghan's History of New Netherland, I, 142; II, 35, 58. 



62 



Some Prominent Persons 

with five children to maintain. Annetje's 
mother, Tryntje Jonas, was probably with 
her daughter at this time, having been sent 
out by the West India Company in the ca- 
pacity of professional nurse, and somewhat 
later a house was built for her on Parel Straat, 
near the home of Annetje's sister Marritje, 
who was the wife of Tymen, the prosperous 
carpenter. 

About two years after the death of Roelof 
Jansz, Annetje married Dominie Bogardus, 
and, with her five children, went to live in the 
house which possessed the knocker brought 
from Holland, and a garden where, bordered 
with box, the gayest flower-beds in New Am- 
sterdam were seen. There were curious cus- 
toms in names among those early colonists 
who boasted no lineage of renown, but passed 
a patronymic from father to children, and from 
husband to wife, modified according to cir- 
cumstances. Roelof Jansz was probably Roelof 



63 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

the son of Jan, and Roelof 's wife, Annetje, 
modestly abbreviating her husband's cog- 
nomen for the feminine form, was known as 
Annetje Jans, while the son of Roelof and 
Annetje, reversed his father's signature, and 
was called Jan Roelefsen. 

The first representative of the medical pro- 
fession in New Amsterdam was the Hugue- 
not, Johannes La Montagne, who, in 1637, 
came from Leyden where he had obtained 
his degree. The family of his first wife, 
Rachel De Forest, had previously emigrated 
to New Netherland, and after several years 
experience of practice in Holland, La Mon- 
tagne was tempted to follow. Before his ap- 
pearance the Zieckentroosters (comforters 
of the sick) aided by professional nurses, had 
performed all needed offices for those afflicted 
by illness, and in days when a remedy recom- 
mended by the most famous physician in 
London was a Balsam of Bats, and the chief 



64 



Some Prominent Persons 

ingredient in a popular decoction was "rasp- 
ings from a human skull unburied," we may 
question the advantage accruing to the resi- 
dents of New Amsterdam by the arrival of 
the learned M.D. 

Dr. La Montagne was, however, a man of 
varied gifts, who subsequently occupied 
several stations of trust under the govern- 
ment. His name appears as a member of the 
council and as official schoolmaster ; and 
after the arrival, in 1638, of the surgeon, 
Hans Kierstede, he seems to have entirely re- 
linquished the duties of the medical profes- 
sion for those connected with the civil and 
military service, where his light is dimmed 
in an atmosphere of cruel deeds for which 
he cannot be wholly relieved of responsi- 
bility. 

Fearless of Indians, the settlers established 
themselves outside the walls of the fort, and 
engaged in farming, though suffering great 



6s 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

inconvenience from a scarcity of horses and 
cattle. Before any streets were laid out, a dis- 
trict north of the fort was divided into bou- 
weries, and six of these were reserved as the 
exclusive property of the Company. The 
grant to Roelof Jansz bounded the base of 
a chalk hill known as the Kalch Hoek, and 
extended from a line nearly identical with 
Canal Street on the north to that of Warren 
Street on the south. The district now bounded 
by Baxter, White, Elm, Duane and Park 
streets was covered by the waters of the 
" Collect," a pond currently reported to be 
fathomless and the abode of terrible mon- 
sters. The western outlet of the Collect was 
a stream which traversed a marshy land to 
the Mauritius River, and was deep enough 
to allow the passage of small boats; while on 
the other side of the pond a brook made its 
way to the East River. The Collect was fed 
by streams of pure water from a hilly land 



66 



Some Prominent Persons 

around it, where Indian wigwams had dotted 
the forests, and industrious Indian squaws 
had occupied themselves in the work of open- 
ing and drying oysters, which they strung 
upon reeds for future use. The accumulated 
shells gave a name to Kalch Hoek near the 
pond, and the word Collect itself is believed 
to be a corruption of those explanatory 
terms. 

Not far from the Collect, on the bank of 
the East River, Van der Donck relates that 
enormous oysters, many inches in diameter, 
were found, and sold at eight or ten stuyvers 
per hundred ; and there lobsters from four to 
six feet long were caught, according to the 
same authority. It would seem that the pro- 
verbial grain of salt might have been requisite 
as an aid to digestion both of shell-fish and 
story. 

If the chronicler may be trusted, the "lus- 
cious food of water-terrapin " was also abun- 



67 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

dant, and wild turkeys, weighing from twenty 
to thirty pounds, were frequently shot. Cran- 
berries, raspberries and blackberries grew in 
profusion, while strawberries were so wildly 
redundant that colonists *' lay down in their 
midst " to enjoy a feast. 



68 




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V 

The " Comedian " Van T wilier. 1633— 1637 

^********^N the year 1632, the mariner- 

IJpatroon, De Vries, sailed from 
S Holland in command of an expe- 
S*******^ dition sent out to test the success 
of whale-fisheries at the mouth of the South 
Bay. When he arrived at the spot where two 
years previous a colony had been established, 
he found the fort destroyed and the ground 
strewn with the bones of the murdered col- 
onists. Having propitiated some Indians 
whom he encountered, he learned from them 
the story of a terrible massacre, but wisely 
pursuing a course of conciliation, he suc- 
ceeded in cementing with the savages of the 
locality a formal treaty of peace. 

Convinced of the impracticability of pur- 
suing the whale-fishery to advantage in that 



69 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

section, De Vries then decided to spend some 
time in exploring the coast of New Nether- 
land, and arrived at Fort Amsterdam soon 
after Van Twiller had assumed the govern- 
ment. While he tarried at the fort an English 
vessel named the " William " entered the bay, 
desiring to proceed up the Mauritius River. 
The commander of the vessel was Jacob Eel- 
kins, a former agent of the Dutch at Fort 
Orange, who, having been dismissed from 
that position, had entered English service, 
and now in the interests of his new employ- 
ers projected a voyage for trading purposes 
through the familiar waters of the river. As 
he declined to show his commission Van 
Twiller refused to permit him to proceed, 
whereupon Eelkens announced that he would 
go if it cost him his life, and sailed defiantly 
past the fort. 

Van Twiller was enraged, but instead of at- 
tempting to check the intruder with the guns 



70 



"Comedian''' Van Twill er 

at his command, he sent forth a crier to sum- 
mon the people, ordered a cask of wine to be 
broached, and called upon all under authority 
to pledge him protection against "the vio- 
lence which the Englishman had committed." 
Posterity will not forget this little tableau 
enacted at Fort Amsterdam by the ** wine- 
bibbing governor," while unmolested the 
"William " sailed quietly up the broad river. 
De Vries, an energetic, clear-headed man, 
frankly censured Van Twiller's conduct, and 
counselled sending the "Zoutberg" up the 
Mauritius to drive the English vessel from 
Dutch waters ; and after a few days of " doubt- 
ing," the governor dispatched on this errand 
"a caravel, a pinnace, and a hoy." At the 
point where the trader was found encamped, 
armed troops promptly assisted him to collect 
his goods, which were confiscated and carried 
to Fort Amsterdam, while at the peremptory 
word of the Dutch commander, the "Wil- 



71 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

liam" weighed anchor, and, convoyed by the 
small fleet from the Fort, sailed swiftly down 
the river and out to sea. 

"The Waverer," having been taught a les- 
son in methods of enforcing his authority, 
proceeded to practice it on occasions less op- 
portune, and when De Vries proposed to send 
his yacht through the East River, for pur- 
poses of trade with the New England colo- 
nists, the guns of the fort were ordered to be 
trained upon the vessel of the Dutch patroon. 
De Vries did not hesitate to characterize in 
emphatic syllables the illegality of that meas- 
ure, and his yacht was finally permitted to 
proceed. 

Van Twiller had found the fort in a dilap- 
idated condition, and African slaves, imported 
by the West India Company, were immedi- 
ately set to work to strengthen and extend its 
defences. Two years were occupied in this 
labor, and when completed the improvements 



72 



"Comedian''' Van Twill er 

had cost the Company four thousand one hun- 
dred and seventy-two guilders ! The new fort, 
three hundred feet in length, by two hundred 
and fifty in breadth, was quadrangular in 
shape, with a bastion at each corner, that at 
the northwest being faced with " good quarry 
stone." Within the inclosure were erected a 
guard-house and barracks for the newly-ar- 
rived soldiers, a "big house" of brick for the 
governor's residence, and three windmills. 
Without the walls were built the little 
wooden church with its peaked roof, and the 
house not far away for the dominie, and on 
the west side of the Heere Straat (Broadway) 
the first burying-ground was laid out. 

Van Twiller ordered also the erection of 
houses at Pavonia, Fort Orange, and Fort Nas- 
sau on the South River ; being expert in the 
distribution of the Company's money for the 
improvement of their property, during those 
early years of his government, though later 



73 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

his zeal seems to have been chiefly manifested 
in the pursuit of private purposes. His im- 
provements upon land known as the Bossen 
Bouwerie may not have been prosecuted with 
eyes single to the Company's service, for hav- 
ing erected there a dwelling-house, boat- 
house, and barn, the honorable director soon 
assumed possession of the property, as perquis- 
ites, perhaps, of his office. 

The Bossen Bouwerie covered the site of the 
old Indian village of Sappokanican, and ex- 
tended through a wooded district, where green 
fields sloped between low hills to the beach 
on the Mauritius river; one boundary line be- 
ginning at the point where Little Twelfth 
Street and Washington Street now cross. The 
bouwerie stood in the Company's name un- 
til the greedy governor succeeded in transfer- 
ring the title to himself, making his " farm- 
house in the woods ' ' the first habitation beyond 
the little settlement around the fort. On this 



74 



"Comedian''' Van Twill er 

bouwerie, Van Twiller began the cultivation 
of tobacco, which soon gained the reputation 
of being the best in the colony, and yielded 
a revenue that notably contributed to the ex- 
pansion of those capacious pockets, accused at 
the close of the governor's administration of 
being unwarrantably distended. 

Some islands in the Sound were added to 
the possessions of this prosperous director, who 
is said to have owned seven wide estates in 
New Netherland ; and, in 1637, he bought 
from the Indians the isle of Pagganck, called 
by the Dutch " Nutten Island," on account 
of its hickory and chestnut groves. Separated 
from the Long Island shore by a channel, 
at that time so narrow that at low-tide it 
was frequently forded, this accessible plot of 
ground was, in 1 698, set apart by English de- 
cree for the benefit of " his Majesty's Gov- 
ernors and Councillors."' 

' Historic New York, Vol. I. 



IS 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

The origin of its modern name, " Gover- 
nor's Island," has been often ascribed to the 
fact of Van Twiller's purchase; but in Sep- 
tember, 1 664, the territory was mentioned as 
Nutten Island in a letter relating to the sur- 
render of New Amsterdam, written by the 
City Court to the West India Company, and 
with this evidence in its favor the supposition 
seems plausible that the English name was 
first linked with the land by people speaking 
the English tongue. 

Complications with the New England col- 
onists soon disturbed Van Twiller's peaceful 
career. In a grant to the Earl of Warwick, 
Charles I. had included a district claimed by 
the Dutch in right of their discoveries in 
1 614; and, in anticipation of contests for the 
possession of this territory, the West India 
Company instructed the director to purchase 
from the Indians the land on both sides of 
the Fresh River (the Connecticut). The Pe- 



76 



"ComediarC'' Van Twill er 

quods had recently been victorious over the 
other tribes of the region, and Jacob Van Cor- 
lear was sent to secure from the chiefs of that 
nation a formal deed of transference ; while 
a redoubt near the present city of Hartford, 
begun in 1623, and named Fort Hope, was 
fortified with two small cannon, and in token 
of ownership, the arms of the States General 
of Holland were affixed to a tree not far from 
the mouth of the river, at a point called Kie- 
vit's Hook.' 

Governor Winthrop, having received intel- 
ligence of this proceeding, dispatched a letter 
to Fort Amsterdam, in which, in the name 
of the King of England, he laid claim to the 
entire valley of the Connecticut; and Van 
Twiller, more diplomatic in correspondence 
than in speech, sent a courteous reply, asking 
that the question of boundary lines between 
English and Dutch territories might be re- 

I Holland Doc. 



11 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

ferred to the home government, in order that 
the people of both colonies might live "as 
good neighbors in these heathenish coun- 
tries." But from some Indians who had been 
expelled by the victorious Pequods, Win- 
throp purchased a precarious title to a district 
north of that occupied by the Dutch, and 
sent troops under command of Lieutenant 
William Holmes to take possession. Passing 
Fort Hope, they were ordered back by Van 
Corlear, but Holmes valiantly asserting his 
determination to execute his orders at all 
hazards, the little band proceeded on their 
way, and, having reached their destination, 
"clapped up the frame of a house which they 
had brought with them, and palisadoed it 
about." 

Van Twiller sent them a formal notice to 
" depart forthwith," but this produced little 
effect upon men who, in the fulfilment of 
their purpose, had defied the guns of the fort; 



78 



"ComediarC^ Van Twill er 

and the perplexed governor of New Nether- 
land, with no energetic counsellor at hand, 
was plunged into a condition of bewilder- 
ment from which the authority of the Am- 
sterdam Chamber seemed alone sufficient to 
extricate him. That body issued commands to 
dislodge the intruders, but before the peremp- 
tory message reached Fort Amsterdam open 
warfare broke out between the Dutch and the 
Pequods, and so greatly increased the hazards 
of the enterprise, that although seventy men 
were dispatched "with colors displayed" to 
execute the order, they withdrew on pretense 
of danger from the Indians, when the Eng- 
lish manifested an intention to dispute the 
ground. 

Among the indefinitely defined English 
grants which so often overlapped one an- 
other, was territory adjacent to the Connecti- 
cut River, claimed by Lord Saye and Lord 
Brooke. In 1635, a party led by the younger 



79 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

Winthrop arrived at Kievit's Hook, and on 
behalf of the English nobleman named the 
spot Saybrooke. Two years later Winthrop 
received from Lord Warwick's grantees a 
commission as ** governor of the River of the 
Connecticut with the places adjoining there- 
unto," and the English advancing into the 
country, tore down the arms of the States 
General, and ** engraved a ridiculous face in 
their place." ' Troops sent from Fort Amster- 
dam to resist these encroachments were not 
permitted to land, and the newcomers, having 
erected a fort, pursued their purpose of occu- 
pying the adjacent country until a narrow 
district in the neighborhood of Fort Hope 
was all that remained to the Dutch in Eastern 
New Netherland. 

The assertion of De Vries that Van Twiller 
had been promoted from a clerkship to per- 
form a comedy in New Netherland, seemed 

' Holland Doc. 



80 



"Comedian'' Van Twill er 

justified by the patroon's experiences. Before 
returning to Holland, De Vries again called 
at Fort Amsterdam, and offered to be the 
bearer of any letters the director might wish 
to send to the home government. Van Twil- 
ler, with pretentious assumption of authority, 
declared a resolution to detain the outward 
bound vessel until its cargo had been in- 
spected by his officials, and when protest 
was entered against such unauthorized pro- 
ceedings he sent musketeers to the shore to 
prevent the ship's departure. In the face of 
this demonstration De Vries ordered his boat 
to row out of the harbor, but before taking 
leave in person, he returned to the fort and 
again administered wholesome counsel to the 
discomfited director, while, on the shore, 
"spectators mocked the guard." 

The following morning a slight skirmish of 
words occurred on De Vries' ship, when it was 
visited by Remund and Notelman, the secre- 



8i 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

tary and the schout of New Amsterdam, who 
brought Van Twiller's budget of letters. 
Remund threatened to confiscate a few bear- 
skins which he found on the deck of the 
vessel, and which had not been entered at 
the fort, but Notelman interfered, desiring 
him to let the patroon account for his goods 
in Holland. The secretary, zealous in his 
office, declared a determination to send a 
ship in pursuit of De Vries, and the exasper- 
ated patroon once more found occasion to 
deliver in emphatic phraseology his opinion 
of official rule at Fort Amsterdam. 

Affairs on the South River next demanded 
the attention of the director. In 1635, intel- 
ligence was brought to Manhattan that the 
vacant fort in that locality had been seized 
by the English, and at once Van Twiller dis- 
patched an armed force to dislodge the in- 
truders. But when, easily overcome, the enemy 
were brought prisoners to Fort Amsterdam, 



82 



"Comedian''' Van Twill er 

the incompetent governor was plunged into 
a new dilemma, for he had received no in- 
struction in methods of dealing with captives. 
Fortunately the ubiquitous De Vries again 
touched at Manhattan, on his way to Chesa- 
peake Bay, and at Van Twiller's urgent peti- 
tion, detained his vessel until the English 
could be conveyed aboard, to be returned to 
their own colony at Point Comfort.' The 
Dutch then re-occupied Fort Nassau, and for 
several years held undisturbed possession. 

But private estates had suffered through 
failure of the West India Company to afford 
the guaranteed protection, and the patroons 
brought suits to indemnify themselves for 
these losses ; while quarrels concerning the fur 
trade continued until the College of XIX, 
weary of the discord, commissioned their 
agents to purchase as far as possible the prop- 
erty rights of the patroons throughout New 

' New York Hist. Col. Ms. II, III. 



83 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

Netherland. The territory on the South River 
was first secured; soon afterwards Michael 
Pauw surrendered Pavonia and Staten Island, 
and Rensselaerswijck alone was retained by its 
owner. De Vries, delivered from the respon- 
sibilities of his original patroonship, contem- 
plated founding a colony in the vicinity of 
Fort Amsterdam, and requested Van Twiller 
to reserve Staten Island for his occupancy. An 
amusing incident is associated with his return 
to Manhattan in the spring of 1636, when 
unseen by garrison or sentinel he sailed up the 
bay and anchored off the fort two hours after 
midnight! At daybreak, unchallenged, he an- 
nounced his arrival by firing three guns, 
whereupon the startled garrison rushed wildly 
to their posts, and the sleepy governor, in at- 
tire much disarranged, ran, pistol in hand, to 
the fort. 

Another story tells of De Vries' excursion 
across the river in company with Van Twiller 



84 



"ComediarC'' Van Twill er 

and Dominie Bogardus, to give greeting to a 
new "head-commander" named Van Voorst, 
who had recently arrived at Pavonia, and was 
reputed to have brought with him some good 
Bordeaux wine. This social event was not free 
from the occurrence of disputes between the 
governor and minister, but the company were 
all upon friendly terms when the visitors took 
leave of their host, and Van Voorst attempted 
to honor the director with a salute. But his 
cannon stood too near the house, and his 
courtesy cost him his home ! A spark fell 
upon the thatch of his roof, and the depart- 
ing guests' pathway across the river was illu- 
minated by the burning building. 

One act of unquestionable bravery dignified 
the closing period of Van Twiller's rule. Dur- 
ing the progress of the Pequod war, in an at- 
tack made by the savages upon the English 
settlement at Wethersfield, nine colonists were 
killed, and two young girls were carried into 



85 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

captivity ! When the news of this calamity 
reached New Amsterdam, the director dis- 
patched a force to redeem the captives, with 
orders to effect this purpose by any means 
whatsoever. Suspicious of an attempt to re- 
gain the lost territory in Connecticut, the 
garrison at Saybrooke refused to allow the 
Dutch sloop to proceed beyond that point 
until a pledge was given that the release of 
the captives should be made their chief de- 
sign. Having passed Saybrooke the party 
reached their destination unmolested, but the 
Pequods refused all offers of ransom for their 
prisoners, until the Dutch had succeeded in 
capturing six or seven savages whom they used 
as a medium of exchange, and the rescued 
maidens were then restored to their friends. 
The "Comedy" was soon to close. The 
schout-fiscal, Lubbertus Van Dincklagen, de- 
scribed with doubled imagery as " an upright 
man and a doctor of laws," had criticised the 



86 



"Comedian''* Van Twill er 

methods of government in the colony, and 
openly censured the director. Van Twiller 
refused payment of Van Dincklagen's salary, 
and wrathfully ordered him out of the coun- 
try. Returning to Holland, the schout ap- 
pealed for justice to the States General, and 
presented a review of Van Twiller's adminis- 
tration. His memorial was referred to the 
Amsterdam Chamber, but was there dealt 
with in so unsatisfactory a manner that Van 
Dincklagen prepared a second document, and 
again asked the interposition of the home 
government. Upon the arrival of De Vries his 
knowledge of affairs was also promulgated, 
and his opinions freely expressed, and the 
States General notified the West India Com- 
pany that they must refute the charges against 
Van Twiller or recall him. 
The latter measure proved the easier, and in 
1637 the Waverer was removed from office. 
He remained for a while in New Amsterdam 



87 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

occupying the Company's bouwerie, which 
he had fitted up to his own satisfaction, and 
for which he paid two hundred and fifty 
guilders a year, while finding profitable occu- 
pation in the care of his own estates in New 
Netherland. When the greater portion of 
these reverted to the Company, Van Twiller 
returned to Holland, where his death in 1 657 
is recorded. 



88 



VI 

The Early Administration of JVillia?n Kieft 
1638-1641 

|********gROCLAMATIONS,protestsand 

P? restrictions made eventful the 
S first months of William Kieft's 
S?******^ administration in New Nether- 
land. The third governor arrived in the spring 
of 1 638, and immediately became engrossed 
in the reformation of colonial affairs; issuing 
regulations so rapidly, that Fiske comprehen- 
sively comments : '* If proclamations could 
reform society, the waspish and wiry little 
governor would have had the millenium in 
full operation within a twelvemonth." 

Director Kieft did not enter office with an 
unsullied reputation, for he had been a bank- 
rupt in business in the mother country; a 
misfortune that in Dutch estimation merited 



89 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

the ignominious publicity procured by the 
annexation of his portrait to the gallows of 
his native city. Subsequent to this humiliation 
he had been sent to Turkey to negotiate the 
freedom of Christian captives, but rumor 
maintained that some were left in bondage 
whose ransom-money had been intrusted to 
the unworthy deputy. Although he was not 
cordially received in New Amsterdam, the 
activity and energy evinced by the "fussy, 
fiery Kieft," soon shone in vivid contrast to 
Van Twiller's dilatory deeds, and few were 
found able to evade the arbitrary edicts of 
the new governor. His first measures were 
strongly suggestive of a determination to ren- 
der his individual authority the only law in 
the colony, for, having been granted the 
privilege of fixing the number of his council, 
he chose but one representative, the learned 
and law-loving, polished and prudent Jo- 
hannes La Montagne. To this distinguished 



90 



Administration of Kief t 

councillor Kieft gave but one vote, however ; 
while, "to prevent all danger of a tie," two 
were retained for himself. 

There was abundant scope for all the di- 
rector's efforts at reform. The fort, " open at 
every side, except the stone-point," presented 
a discouraging view of dismounted guns ; 
while windmills that would not work, farms 
without tenants, and vessels falling to pieces 
in the harbor, formed a trio of embarrass- 
ments fitted to challenge the courage of a less 
energetic man. The colonists found little re- 
ward for farming when they were denied a 
title to the land they cultivated, and smug- 
gling of both furs and tobacco was widely 
practised, while arms were sold to the Indians 
whenever such trade proved profitable. 

Kieft posted his placards on barns and trees 
and fences ; forbidding, on pain of death, the 
sale of guns or powder to the savages, and 
affixing heavy penalties to the illegal traffic 



91 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

in furs. In order that his authority might 
more readily be enforced, restrictions were 
placed upon personal freedom ; no one was 
permitted to leave the island without a pass- 
port ; and sailors were forbidden to be absent 
from their ships after nightfall. The director 
was a strictly temperate man, and endeavored 
to prevent the occurrence of the "lively ca- 
rousals" which had been too obviously in 
accordance with Van Twiller's tastes to suffer 
restraint under his legislation. Kieft's law 
enacted that no liquor should be sold at retail 
except "wine in moderate quantities," and 
every evening at nine o'clock the town bell 
proclaimed the proper hour for retiring. 
Morning and evening the same messenger 
summoned and dismissed the laborers, and on 
Thursdays its tones were the signal for prison- 
ers to appear in court. 

The complaints against Van Twiller having 
directed the attention of the States General 



92 



Administration of Kief t 

of Holland to the complications in New 
Netherland affairs, their High Mightinesses 
considered it prudent to continue their inves- 
tigations, and at length informed the West 
India Company that measures must be taken 
"such as should be found advisable for the ser- 
vice of the state and the benefit of the Com- 
pany." Thereupon the Amsterdam Chamber 
proposed more liberal conditions for colonists. 
A farmer willing to emigrate was to be car- 
ried free of expense to New Netherland, where 
a farm as large as he could satisfactorily culti- 
vate would be provided, with house and barn, 
horses, cows, pigs, and needful implements of 
agriculture. For this equipment the farmer 
was to pay a quit-rent equivalent to two- 
hundred dollars per annum, for six years, and 
at the end of that period he might claim the 
land, with all that had been gained above the 
value of the stock originally furnished. Each 
colonist was required to sign a pledge to sub- 



93 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

mit to the authority of officers appointed by 
the West India Company, and that corpora- 
tion again agreed to keep in repair the fort 
and the pubhc buildings, and to provide 
ministers, schoolmasters, and negro slaves. 
Somewhat later, a revised charter for the 
patroons modified the privileges of the aris- 
tocracy, and gave the colonists commercial 
and manufacturing rights. 

Among the earliest settlers of New Neth- 
erland the thrifty and prosperous element of 
Holland's population was not widely repre- 
sented, but the later charter of privileges 
tempted members of good families to emi- 
grate, and the West India Company reaped 
the reward of their more liberal policy. In 
1639, the number of bouweries on Manhat- 
tan Island had increased from seven to over 
thirty, and the tolerant temper shown by the 
Dutch toward persons of every religion 
brought, not long afterward, to New Nether- 



94 



Administration of Kief t 

land many New Englanders, who had been 
exiled from their homes by the fanatical 
zeal of magistrates. Among these was Anne 
Hutchinson, that "masterpiece of wit and 
wisdom" whom Winthrop claimed to have 
entangled in twenty-nine errors, and the 
dissenting clergyman, Francis Doughty, who 
while preaching at Cohassett, had been 
dragged from his pulpit for saying that Abra- 
ham's children ought to have been baptized.' 
Many fugitive servants "carrying their pass- 
ports under the soles of their shoes" came 
also from New England and from Virginia, 
until the conduct of some immigrants having 
been reported to occasion " mischief and com- 
plaint," Kieft forbade the people of New Am- 
sterdam to harbor any stranger more than one 
night, or to provide for him more than one 
meal, without notification to the director, ac- 
companied by the name of the newcomer. 

' Fiske's Dutch and ^aker Colonies. 



95 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

Upon taking an oath of obedience to the States 
General, the ahens were received; equal rights 
and entire religious freedom were granted to 
all, and New Amsterdam entered upon its 
cosmopolitan career. 

Trespassers upon territory on the South 
River soon called Kieft's attention from af- 
fairs at Fort Amsterdam. The ex-director, 
Peter Minuit, after returning to Holland, 
had offered his services to the government, 
then guided by the great Chancellor Oxen- 
stein, and his proposition to plant a Scandi- 
navian colony in America had been favorably 
received. With about fifty Swedes, includ- 
ing a Lutheran minister, Minuit arrived in 
Delaware Bay, and for "a kettle and other 
trinkets " purchased from the Indians a tract 
of land not far from Fort Nassau. Through 
the deed signed by the sachem, the Swedish 
claim included all the territory on the west 
bank of the Delaware River from Cape Hen- 



96 



Administration of Kief t 

lopen to Trenton Falls, and extending inland 
indefinitely. A fort was built and named for 
the young queen, Christiana, and as Minuit 
had brought material for the Indian trade, he 
was soon able to send to Europe a cargo of 
furs. 

Angry messages of remonstrance against 
these encroachments upon the rights of the 
Dutch were issued from Fort Amsterdam, 
and a Swedish sloop challenged from Fort 
Nassau was warned to depart from the waters 
of the South River, but Minuit ignored these 
protests, and, as it was not the policy of Hol- 
land to offend Sweden, the little colony re- 
mained for several years unmolested. Minuit 
on a voyage to Sweden perished in a hurri- 
cane, and under the next governor, John 
Printz, the settlement of New Sweden was 
rapidly strengthened, and the West India 
Company's trade with the Indians of that 
region was for a time practically closed. 



97 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

After the English settlements in the neigh- 
borhood of Long Island Sound had united 
their strength in the federal colonies of New- 
Haven and Connecticut, the Dutch boundary 
line on the Fresh River was again narrowed 
by the advance of settlers. Declaring that it 
was "a sin to leave unused ground that could 
produce such excellent corn," the English 
began to cultivate the land in the immediate 
vicinity of Fort Good Hope, where Gysbert 
Op Dyck was established with a garrison of 
fourteen or fifteen men. " They gave out," 
said De Vries, " that they were Israelites and 
that the Dutch were Egyptians." The situa- 
tion elicited several new proclamations from 
Kieft which failed to tranquilize affairs, how- 
ever, and finally Op Dyck relinquished a 
position which brought only annoyance with- 
out honor. 

In 1 64 1, Kieft ordered a force of fifty men 
to protect the thirty acres which alone re- 



98 



Administration of Kief t 

mained to the Dutch, but just at that time 
hostile demonstrations from the Indians com- 
pelled him to detain the troops at Fort Am- 
sterdam, and Winthrop joyfully wrote, ** It 
pleased the Lord to disappoint this purpose." 
De Vries, finding Staten Island an unsatis- 
factory estate, pursued his habit of leisurely 
travel, and left for the perusal of future gen- 
erations an entertaining account of intelligent 
journeyings at a time when the Falls of 
Cahooes appeared " as high as a church." 
He explored the shores of the Mauritius as 
far as Fort Orange, and although his proph- 
ecies concerning settlements upon the river's 
bank were not optimistic, he purchased a few 
miles north of New Amsterdam a tract of 
land to which he gave the name of Vriesen- 
dale. 

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99 




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VII 

A Chapter of Disgraceful Deeds. 1640 — 1643 

mN 1634 that ** weak brother, Van 
Twiller," had compassed a deed 
of great importance to the colony 
5^^^^^$^^ at Fort Amsterdam, by conclud- 
ing an advantageous peace with the Raritan 
Indians. The friendly relations then estab- 
lished were maintained for several years, but 
when the colonists began to employ Indians 
as household servants, the temptations pre- 
sented were too strong for savage nature to 
resist ; and, after possessing themselves of prop- 
erty belonging to their employers, the ser- 
vants often departed suddenly to use their 
knowledge of the settlers' habits to the latter's 
disadvantage. The savages had learned to be 
shrewd in trade and exacting in their bargains, 
** requiring a cod if they gave a herring," 



loi 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

and when it was no longer found profitable 
to indulge them, they were treated with con- 
tempt. 

Other irritating conditions were fostered 
when the Dutch, in their eagerness for trade, 
neglected the care of their bouweries, and 
their straying cattle, intruding upon the un- 
fenced cornfields of the Indians, were killed 
or captured. The edict against the sale of fire- 
arms to the Indians had been often evaded, 
and they, who at first looked upon a gun as 
** the devil," and refused to touch one, became 
so debased by familiarity with that implement 
of destruction that in their eagerness to pos- 
sess a musket they would offer twenty beaver 
skins in exchange. Tempted by such extra- 
ordinary profits many colonists traded, until 
they were devoid of all means of defence in 
time of danger, and the savages were equipped 
for the war soon to be precipitated by the rash 
and reckless director. 



I02 



Disgraceful Deeds 

Upon the pretext that the savages were re- 
sponsible for the necessity of maintaining the 
forts and their garrisons, and on the plea of 
express orders from Holland, Kieft levied a 
tax of *' maize, furs, or sewant," upon the In- 
dians. Naturally the tribute was refused by 
the warriors, on the ground that the troops and 
the fort furnished them no protection; and, 
declaring that the Dutch were still under ob- 
ligations for food provided them during the 
early years of the settlement, the Indians con- 
cluded by announcing, *' If we have ceded to 
you the land you occupy, we will yet remain 
masters of what we have retained."' 

By this injudicious attempt at taxation, the 
River Indians were totally estranged, and as 
there were rumors of a projected attack upon 
Fort Amsterdam, Kieft ordered all inhabit- 
ants of Manhattan to provide themselves with 
firearms. But the burning brand was cast by 

'Brodhead, vol. I, 311. 



103 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

the governor's own hand. Some petty thefts 
committed on Staten Island were charged up- 
on Raritan Indians, and although there was 
no proof that the criminals belonged to that 
tribe, soldiers were sent to demand from them 
restitution. In the conflict that ensued, al- 
though Van Tienhoven, the leader of the 
troops, made an effort to restrain his men, sev- 
eral Indians were killed, and the crops in the 
Raritan settlement were destroyed. This epi- 
sode occurred in 1 640, and revenge was not 
long delayed. In 1641 the unprotected plan- 
tation of De Vries, on Staten Island, was at- 
tacked by the Raritans, the buildings burned, 
and four planters killed. Kieft, more savage 
than the savages, more revengeful than the 
wronged De Vries, proclaimed a bounty of 
ten fathoms of wampum for the head of any 
Raritan ; thus inciting against them the In- 
dians of other tribes, and before long one of 
the River savages brought to the fort a hand 



104 



Disgraceful Deeds 

which he declared to have belonged to the 
chief who had murdered the Dutchmen on 
De Vries' estate. 

Meanwhile, in accordance with Indian cus- 
tom, a vow of vengeance religiously cherished 
for long years was executed, and retribution 
followed an evil deed done in the days of 
Minuit's rule. A Weequaesgeek Indian, on 
his way to Fort Amsterdam to dispose of 
beaver skins, had been attacked by three of 
Minuit's servants, robbed and murdered; but 
his nephew who accompanied him, a young 
lad and swift of foot, escaped to plan methods 
of revenge. Grown to manhood, he went to 
the house of a harmless old man named Claes 
Smits, upon pretence of bartering beaver- 
skins for cloth, and while, unsuspicious of 
evil, the victim stooped over his chest to find 
the articles desired, he was killed by a blow 
from the Indian's axe. 

Kieft demanded that the murderer should 



105 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

be surrendered for punishment, but the chief 
of the Weequaesgeeks refused, on the ground 
that he had but avenged the death of his 
uncle, and the wrathful governor was only 
restrained from immediate declaration of war 
by the popular opposition to that course. In 
the serious exigencies of the situation, Kieft 
was induced temporarily to relinquish his au- 
tocratic method of procedure, and represen- 
tatives of the families of New Amsterdam 
were summoned to meet in council. 

On August 28, 1 64 1, this first popular as- 
sembly of New Netherland was convoked, 
and by its vote twelve men were appointed 
to co-operate with the governor, in measures 
for securing the welfare of the colony. This 
committee agreed that the murder of Claes 
Smits must be avenged, but ** God and the 
opportunity" must first be considered. They 
advised a continuance of trade with the In- 
dians until the hunting season should arrive. 



106 



Disgraceful Deeds 

when the scattered foe might be more easily 
overcome ; and when the proper time for an 
attack should be at hand, they agreed that the 
governor "ought to lead the van." But the 
pacific policy of De Vries exerted its influ- 
ence upon all the meetings of the council, 
and when the hunting season came, and the 
savages were still on their guard, the choleric 
Kieft was forced again to delay his antici- 
pated vengeance, though to possess his soul in 
patience was quite beyond his power. 

The Twelve Men once more convened, 
availed themselves of the opportunity for se- 
curing some popular rights long desired by 
the democratic Dutchmen, and although the 
director angrily dissolved the meeting, he 
found, like the second Stuart sovereign of 
England, that his prerogatives rested upon 
the will of the people. The Twelve Men 
demanded that thenceforth the governor's 
council should consist of at least five mem- 



107 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

bers, of whom four should be chosen by 
popular vote, ** to save the land from oppres- 
sion"; and for all colonists they claimed the 
right to trade with neighboring people, and 
the privilege of visiting vessels arrived from 
abroad. 

Hitherto Kieft had exercised the right to 
impose taxes and fines, and to change the 
value of wampum as he chose, thus affecting 
all property values. His had been the sole 
voice of authority in the settlement of all 
criminal questions, as well as civil contro- 
versies, and in autocratic complacency he had 
regarded his position as supreme and invul- 
nerable. But now he realized the imprudence 
of refusing concessions to the Twelve Men, 
and feigning to yield to their wishes in many 
points, he replied to the demand for a per- 
manently enlarged council by announcing 
that "some persons of quality," appointed in 
Holland, were expected soon to arrive. 



io8 



Disgraceful Deeds 

Promptly following this news appeared a 
proclamation forbidding any meeting for the 
discussion of public affairs, unless by the di- 
rect summons of the governor. 

The Twelve Men continued to refuse their 
sanction to active operations against the In- 
dians, and at length Kieft, assuming personal 
responsibility for the act, sent Ensign Van 
Dyck with eighty men against the Wee- 
quaesgeeks. "But," says the chronicle, *'the 
guide lost his way and the commander his 
temper," and the party returned ingloriously 
to Fort Amsterdam. The Indians were, how- 
ever, alarmed by the demonstration, and sent 
to the fort to sue for peace. With the stipu- 
lation that the murderer of ClaesSmits should 
be surrendered, a treaty was concluded, but 
the promise given was never fulfilled, and the 
peace was soon violated. 

Near Hackensack,one evening in 1643, De 
Vries encountered a drunken Indian, who 



109 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

vehemently asserted a purpose to seek revenge 
for the theft of his beaver-skin coat. If ven- 
geance could be executed, the individual 
upon whom it was visited was of little ac- 
count, and the following day a settler, quietly 
engaged in the work of thatching his house, 
was shot by the savage. 

The chiefs of the tribe, anticipating retal- 
iation, sought advice from the trusted De 
Vries, and offered to give the widow of the 
murdered man twenty fathoms of wampum. 
De Vries persuaded them to go with him to 
Fort Amsterdam, but Kieft refused to agree 
to any terms of peace in which the surrender 
of the murderer was not included. The chiefs 
declared that he had fled "two days' journey 
away," and, asserting that strong drink had 
caused the crime, they again offered atone- 
ment in money. Before negotiations had been 
concluded, however, the River Indians were 
attacked by the Mohawks, those "kings of 



I lo 



Disgraceful Deeds 

the forest," whom all feared, and flocking to 
the Dutch for protection, several hundred 
savages encamped at Pavonia and on Man- 
hattan Island. The time seemed at hand for 
securing their permanent friendship, but 
Kieft viewed the conditions in a different 
light, and, supported by some members of the 
council, rejoiced in the opportunity afforded 
for striking the long delayed blow. Dominie 
Bogardus, La Montague, and De Vries argued 
in vain. At midnight of February 25, 1643, 
detachments of soldiers were sent from Fort 
Amsterdam, and eighty Indians, men, women, 
and children were massacred at Pavonia; 
while at Corlear's Hook, forty more were 
murdered in their sleep. Dutch annals were 
dyed deep in wickedness that night. The next 
morning Kieft welcomed home his brutal 
bands, who came bringing the heads of vic- 
tims, while many inhabitants of New Am- 
sterdam, with evil passions inflamed by the 



1 1 1 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

bloody sight, extolled the most disgraceful 
deed in all their history. 

Intelligence of the massacre incited the 
colonists on Long Island to seek occasion for 
attacking the Indians in their neighborhood, 
and although Kieft directed them to continue 
at peace unless signs of hostility were shown, 
movements innocent of evil design were 
often construed into hostile indications by 
those who coveted neighboring cornfields ; 
and in return for the loss of grain there were 
deadly deeds of Indian vengeance. 

Retaliation for the massacre at Pavonia 
was not delayed. Eleven Algonquin tribes 
made common cause against the Dutch, and 
began those stealthy tactics to oppose which 
the civilized soldier possessed no weapons. 
Farmers were shot down on their bouweries, 
their families carried into captivity, and their 
homes destroyed by an enemy, who myste- 
riously appeared, and as suddenly vanished 



I 12 



Disgraceful Deeds 

when his work was done. Only those within 
the protecting walls of the fort were secure 
of life, and to prevent the colonists from re- 
turning to Holland, Kieft was compelled to 
receive many into the Company's service 
as soldiers. Even Vriesendale was attacked, 
though saved by the intervention of an In- 
dian, whose life the patroon had protected 
on the night of the Pavonia massacre. 

Realizing too late his error, Kieft again sum- 
moned a popular assembly, who chose eight 
men as councillors. Five of these were Dutch; 
two English; and one, named Kuyter, a Ger- 
man.' By their advice, efforts were made to 
pacify the savages on Long Island, but, 
characterizing the governor's messengers as 
"corn thieves," those Indians scornfully de- 
clined to consider any proposition for peace. 

' The Eight Men were Jochem Petersen Kuyter, Cornells Melny, 
Jan Jansen Dam, or Damen, Barent Diercksen, Abram Pietersen, 
Gerrit Wolfertsen, Isaac Allerton, and Thomas Hall ; but when 
the other men declined to act with Damen, Jan Evertsen Bout was 
chosen to take his place. 



113 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

The destitute and wrathful farmers charged 
the director with responsibility for all that 
had befallen them, and the project of send- 
ing him back to Holland was openly dis- 
cussed. Kieft endeavored to throw the blame 
upon others, until he roused the people to 
such frenzy that some officials on whom he 
had cast discredit made efforts to assassinate 
him. Their agent was shot down and his 
head set upon the gallows, but the policy of 
the governor was not vindicated. 

One morning in the spring of 1643, three 
delegates from the Indians on Long Island 
approached Fort Amsterdam bearing a white 
flag. The director dared not go forth to meet 
them, but sent De Vries and Jacob Olfertsen, 
to whom the messengers communicated the 
desire of their chief that the Dutch would 
" go to speak with him at the sea coast." 
The dauntless patroon and his companion 
thereupon accompanied the savages to a 



114 



Disgraceful Deeds 

point near Rockaway, Long Island, where 
three hundred of the tribe were assembled. 
The visitors were offered refreshments, and 
at daybreak were led into the woods, where 
were gathered the sixteen chiefs of Long 
Island. Seating themselves in a circle, the 
sachems placed the two white men in the cen- 
tre, and then one chief arose, who carried in 
his hand a bundle of small sticks. This chosen 
orator then began a long harangue, enumer- 
ating the wrongs which the Indians had en- 
dured, and laying down his twigs one by one 
as he recounted his grievances. He was at 
length interrupted by De Vries, who asked 
the Indians to return with him to Fort Am- 
sterdam, promising them an atonement for 
their injuries, in gifts from the director. To 
this proposition the sachems consented, for 
though warned by some of their number 
against putting themselves in the power of the 
man who had slain so many of their race. 



115 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

they had faith in the patroon, from whose lips 
they said they ** had never heard lies, as they 
had from other Swannekens/ " 

At the Fort, gifts from Kieft cemented an 
informal treaty, but the governor's request 
that these chiefs would persuade representa- 
tives of the River tribes to come to New Am- 
sterdam for conference, did not secure the 
desired results. The injured savages were not 
easily appeased, and although the sachem of 
the Hackensacks made a covenant of peace 
for some neighboring tribes, the presents 
given failed to satisfy, and the colonists lived 
in constant fear of attack. At midsummer a 
friendly Indian warned De Vries that danger 
was impending, and, at the patroon's request, 
went with him to warn the director. 

Kieft, ignorant and impolitic, tried to bribe 
the messenger to put to death the foes of the 
Dutch, but his proffered gifts were indig- 

' Indian name for the Dutch. 



ii6 



Disgraceful Deeds 

nantly spurned by the savage. "Had you at 
first fully atoned for your murders," he de- 
clared, " they would have been forgotten ; I 
shall do my best to pacify my people, but 
fear I cannot, as they are continually crying 
out for vengeance." 



117 



VIII 

The Indian War-whoop . 1 6 4 3 — 1 6 4 6 

|********SARLY in the autumn of 1 643 the 

E 5 war-whoop was sounded. Near 
^ New Rochelle the home of Anne 
^********» Hutchinson was burned, and the 
family murdered, with the exception of one 
little girl who was carried into captivity. At 
Pavonia and Hackensack, bouweries were sur- 
prised, houses burned, andsoldiers slaughtered. 
West Chester and Long Island were made 
" almost destitute of inhabitants and stock"; 
and on Manhattan Island not more than half 
a dozen bouweries remained undestroyed. 
The fort at New Amsterdam was almost in 
ruins, but only within its barriers was there 
protection for the colonists and for their starv- 
ing cattle. Seven allied tribes, " well supplied 
with muskets, powder and ball," threatened 



119 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

this place of refuge, and for defense the Dutch 
could muster only about two hundred soldiers. 

When the Eight Men were again convoked, 
two ships belonging to the West India Com- 
pany lay before the fort, loaded with provi- 
sions for Cura^oa. It was proposed to take 
possession of the cargoes, and to draft the crews 
into service on land. The council voted also 
to apply for aid from the New England col- 
onies, and as a guaranty of payment for their 
troops to offer a mortgage upon the territory 
of New Netherland.' Kieft considered the 
first proposition " inexpedient," but dis- 
patched ambassadors to seek assistance at New 
Haven, who soon returned to the disheart- 
ened Dutch bearing a refusal of their request, 
on the ground that the English "were not 
satisfied that the war with the Indians was 
just. 

The destruction of the colony seemed im- 

'Hoi. Doc. Ill, 1 1 6, 117. 



I 20 



The Indian War-whoop 

minent, and De Vries, having again lost all 
his possessions, resolved to return to Holland. 
He parted from Kieft with the prophecy, 
" The murders in which you have shed so 
much innocent blood will yet be revenged 
upon your own head." 

Only through aid from Holland could the 
colonists hope for rescue, and an appeal signed 
by each of the Eight Men was addressed to 
the College of XIX,' while another letter sent 
to the States General carried to that august 
body a statement of the trials endured by the 
people of New Netherland. " We have no 
means of defense against a savage foe," they 
wrote, "and we have a miserable despot to 
rule over us." 

When hostilities were reopened, disgraceful 
atrocities again marked the warfare of the 
Dutch. On suspicion of treachery among the 
Canarsee Indians, a force under command 

'Hoi. Doc. Ill, 134-140. 



121 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

of La Montagne, Cook, and Underhill, sent 
to surprise them, killed over a hundred, and 
brought several prisoners to Fort Amsterdam, 
where one was forced to perform the death 
dance of his race, while, armed with long 
knives, the Dutch soldiers barbarously cut and 
beat their victim until he dropped dead; and 
another, also mutilated, was beheaded on a 
millstone, while the director and La Mon- 
tagne viewed the deed.' As winter approached, 
and the colonists found themselves in need of 
many necessaries of life, a ship from Holland, 
destined for Rensselaerswijck, was stopped at 
Fort Amsterdam, and fifty pairs of shoes de- 
manded, for which Kieft offered to pay in 
silver, beavers, or wampum. The request hav- 
ing been refused, the vessel was seized and 
searched, and on the plea that it contained 
contraband articles, its cargo of guns and am- 
munition was confiscated. 

' Hoi. Doc. Ill, I 2 1-122. 



122 



The Indian War-whoop 

Early in the year 1 644, the English refugee, 
Underhill, was sent, with one hundred and 
fifty men, against the Connecticut Indians, 
and on a moonlight night approached the 
village near Greenwich, where, owing to 
the celebration of a festival, seven hundred 
savages had gathered. Finding them on their 
guard, the Dutch charged upon their strong- 
hold, and although several sallies were made, 
and the arrows of the besieged effected some 
damage, the guns of the besiegers were more 
fatal, and within an hour one hundred and 
eighty Indians had been killed. Underhill 
then gave orders to fire the encampment, 
and, as the savages attempted to escape, they 
were shot down by foes as cruel as themselves. 
It is stated that only eight escaped, while 
among the Dutch but fifteen men were 
wounded. Again, for a deed of barbarity, 
Kieft ordered a public thanksgiving, when 
fasting and repentance would seem to have 



123 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

been a more fitting consummation of the 
affair. 

As spring approached, a few Indians ap- 
peared at Fort Amsterdam and pledged them- 
selves to peace; but many tribes remained 
hostile, and their scouts were frequently seen 
prowling about the town. For protection of 
straying cattle, a fence was therefore erected 
"from the great bouwerie across to the plan- 
tation of Emanuel," covering a line from the 
North to the East River which Wall Street 
now partially indicates. 

In desperate straits for money to pay the 
troops, Kieft again summoned the Eight Men, 
proposing a tax upon wine, beer, brandy, and 
beaver; but on the ground that the right of 
taxation could not be claimed by the gover- 
nor of a province, the measure was opposed, 
while Kieft, unwilling to admit such a limi- 
tation of his authority, defiantly asserted that 
he was his own master in New Netherland, 



124 



The Indian War-whoop 

having received his commission from the 
States General, and not alone from the West 
India Company. But the people of New Am- 
sterdam were struggling toward the burgher 
government which they were soon to attain ; 
and against the proclamation which falsely 
declared that by advice of the council the 
duties would be collected, brewers and tap- 
sters protested, on the ground that if they paid 
the tax they would ** offend the Eight Men 
and the whole community." 

At this juncture, unexpected relief arrived. 
Driven out of Brazil by the Portuguese, one 
hundred and thirty Dutch soldiers had arrived 
at Cura^oa, where Peter Stuyvesant was at 
that time director for the West India Com- 
pany. Not needing the troops, Stuyvesant sent 
them to New Amsterdam under command of 
Jan de Fries; and upon their opportune arri- 
val, Kieft decided to "billet the new comers 
on the commonalty," while procuring the 



125 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

clothing they needed by means of the con- 
temned duties on liquors. The brewers were 
taxed, not alone for every tun of beer sold, 
but were ordered to " make a return of the 
exact quantity they might brew," ' and hav- 
ing refused obedience to this edict, they were 
summoned before the council, where "judg- 
ment was recorded against them and their 
beer was given as a prize to the soldiers." 

Encouraged by the assistance now provided, 
the director resolved to renew active measures 
against the Indians; but little was accom- 
plished during the summer, and after their 
autumn crops had been secured, the savages 
grew bolder, and wandering about Manhattan 
Island by night rendered it so unsafe that "no 
one dared to fetch a stick of firewood with- 
out a strong escort." 

Remonstrances and petitions to Kieft failed 
to secure the conditions required for safety, 

'Hoi. Doc. Ill, 187. 



126 



The Indian War-whoop 

and at last the Eight Men addressed another 
memorial to the West India Company. It 
was prepared by the town surveyor, Andries 
Hudde, and after detailing the unhappy 
phases of affairs in the colony, where "fields 
lie fallow and waste, and dwellings are 
burned," it stated the complaints concerning 
the director's arbitrary rule, rested upon him 
responsibility for the condition of warfare, 
and warned the Company against relying 
upon statements written in "the book" Kieft 
had sent home, which contained, it was as- 
serted, " as many lies as lines." The paper con- 
cluded with a petition that a 'new governor 
might be sent to the colony, or the afflicted 
petitioners be permitted to return to the 
fatherland. 

Meanwhile the letter received by the States 
General in the preceding year had been re- 
ferred to the West India Company, with 
commands that immediate relief should be 



127 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

sent to the colonists; but the bankrupt cor- 
poration could only plead their inability to 
obey, through failure to receive the antici- 
pated profits from New Netherland. When 
the second appeal for help was received, the 
College of XIX, realizing that some measures 
for immediate relief must be taken, issued 
orders for Kieft's recall, and appointed 
Lubbertus Van Dincklagen as temporary oc- 
cupant of the director's office. While schout- 
fiscal under Van Twiller,Van Dincklagen had 
been "well liked by the Indians," and now, 
having satisfactorily adjusted his affairs with 
the Company, he was ready to return to New 
Netherland. 

By command of the Amsterdam Chamber, 
the "Bureau of Accounts" prepared a report 
which, after reviewing the history of the 
colony, recommended measures for its " profit 
and advancement." A conviction was stated 
that, "without the knowledge, much less the 



128 



The Indian War-whoop 

order of the XIX, and against the will of the 
Commonalty there," the province through 
Kieft's unnecessary wars had fallen into ruin ; 
but could not consistently be abandoned, al- 
though from 1626 to 1644 it had cost the 
Company over five hundred and fifty thou- 
sand guilders.' 

It was therefore resolved that the boundary 
question between the Dutch and English 
should at once be settled; that the Indians 
should be appeased ; and that the government 
of New Netherland should be vested in a 
Supreme Council, consisting of a director, 
vice-director, and fiscal. Privileges were to be 
granted to emigrants, manufacturers encour- 
aged, and colonists settled in towns and vil- 
lages were to be permitted to choose deputies 
to represent them at a semi-annual assembly 
at Manhattan. A garrison of fifty-three sol- 
diers was to be maintained at Fort Amster- 

I Brodhead, Hoi. Doc. 



129 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

dam, where repairs were ordered; and every 
civilian was commanded to provide himself 
with a musket. It was also ordained that 
Kieft should be summoned to justify himself 
for "the bloody exploit of February, 1643." 
There was rejoicing in New Amsterdam 
when the news of Kieft's recall was received, 
and the people did not hesitate openly to ex- 
press their pleasure. Two or three persons, 
too frank in speech for their own safety, were 
arrested and fined or banished ; while the di- 
rector signalized the last period of his rule by 
conducting affairs in a manner more arbitrary 
than ever, and refused all right of appeal from 
his decisions. Dominie Bogardus, having 
been accused of drunkenness by the highest 
authority in the Province, in righteous wrath 
denounced the prosecutor from the pulpit, 
and encouraged the populace in their antag- 
onistic sentiments toward him. The quarrel 
between governor and dominie was an open 



130 



The Indian War-whoop 

one, and Bogardus, braving a violation of the 
law, refused to obey when cited to appear be- 
fore the court, and rejected the proposition to 
refer the case to the other clergymen. Dough- 
ty and Megapolensis; while Kieft absented 
himself from church, and encouraged noisy 
amusements during the hours of service. At 
last the tangled woof of affairs was somewhat 
smoothed, through the interference of peace- 
makers, and arrangements having been made 
for Dominie Megapolensis to occupy the pul- 
pit on a certain Sunday, Kieft again appeared 
in church. 

Meantime entanglements with the Swedes 
on the South River were of frequent occur- 
rence, and New England colonists, complain- 
ing of" insufferable disorders" at Fort Hope, 
declared themselves " much unsatisfied " with 
the view of affairs taken by the governor of 
New Netherland. But the close of Kieft's 
administration was to be marked by one 



131 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

atoning episode. When the spring of 1645 
opened, Indian delegates appeared at Fort 
Amsterdam desiring to consummate a treaty 
of peace. Kieft was now as eager to secure 
tranquillity as he had been to execute those 
deeds that precipitated the war. He followed 
without hesitation the advice of his council, 
and, having entered into an agreement with 
the Indian emissaries, secured their services 
for negotiations with tribes who continued 
hostile. Through diplomacy more was ac- 
complished than had been gained by all the 
powder and shot the Dutch had used, and 
in a short time peace was established with 
all the savage tribes in the vicinity of Man- 
hattan. 

On the 29th of August, 1645, summoned by 
the sound of the bell, the citizens gathered 
at Fort Amsterdam to listen to the articles 
of the peace treaty, with the assurance that 
" if any could give good advice he might de- 



132 



The Indian War-whoop 

clare his opinions freely." On the following 
day, in front of the fort, dark doublets and 
peaked hats were in vivid contrast with feath- 
ered and bead-ornamented costumes, when 
Dutch and Indians met to smoke the pipe of 
peace and to take pledges of eternal friend- 
ship. Henceforth no armed Indian was to ap- 
proach the houses of the colonists and no 
armed Dutchman was to visit a village of the 
savages, unless with a native escort. The treaty 
of Fort Amsterdam brought security and joy 
once more to the province, and the day of 
thanksgiving next appointed was heartily ob- 
served. 

When news of the consummation of peace 
reached Holland, the officers of the West 
India Company were divided in opinion con- 
cerning the policy to be pursued in the 
government of New Netherland, and Van 
Dincklagen's departure was delayed. His pro- 
visional appointment was finally revoked, 



133 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

when Peter Stuyvesant was named for the of- 
fice of director, with Van Dinklagen as vice- 
director, and Hendrick Van Dyck as fiscal. 
The three officials took oaths of office in July, 
1 646 ; but before their departure from Hol- 
land, a document was presented to the States 
General, embodying Stuyvesant's views con- 
cerning the government of New Netherland, 
and a prolonged discussion of those theories 
followed, while Kieft continued to rule at 
Manhattan. 



134 




THE GOVERNOR'S HOUSE JND THE CHURCH IN 
THE FORT, UNDER THE DUTCH 



IX 

Peaceful Progress 

s^********SOME progress was made in ways 

S\ of peace during the stormy years 
S of Kieft's administration, and one 
\'99^^^9^^ of the most important works ac- 
complished was the erection of a new church. 
When, during a council dinner, De Vries had 
contrasted the sacred edifices of New England 
with the small wooden church in New Am- 
sterdam, his comments were so disparaging 
to Dutch piety that the governor was stimu- 
lated to the desire to erect a more imposing 
place of worship, and a favorable occasion 
for soliciting contributions for this work was 
soon found. At the marriage of Sara Roelofs, 
the eldest daughter of Anneke Jans, to the 
surgeon, Hans Kierstede, " after the fourth 
or fifth round of drinking " De Vries passed 



135 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

a subscription paper, which he and the gover- 
nor had headed, and a goodly sum was se- 
cured. Although next morning some of the 
company " well repented their generosity," 
Kieft forbade any subscription to be with- 
drawn ; and a contract was promptly signed 
with John and Richard Ogden of Stamford, 
Conn., for the erection of a stone church 
seventy-two feet long, fifty-two wide, and 
sixteen "over the ground." The sum of 
twenty-five hundred guilders was agreed up- 
on for the work, with one hundred more if 
it proved satisfactory. The building was soon 
begun, and the governor proclaimed his own 
share in its erection by an inscription upon a 
stone in the front wall which stated that 

"Anno Domini, 1642, 

William Kieft, Director General 

hath the Commonalty caused to build this 

temple." 

For security against the Indians a site had 



136 



Peaceful Progress 

been chosen within the walls of the fort, and 
in honor of a tutelary genius of the father- 
land, the edifice was called the Church of 
St. Nicholas. When completed, five years 
later, its actual cost had amounted to eight 
thousand guilders. 

The old church building was in time util- 
ized as a store, where Allard Anthony is re- 
corded to have traded "a hanger" to Jan 
Van Clief, for "as much buckwheat as An- 
thony's fowls will eat in six months." ' 
Among other substantial buildings were the 
Company's storehouses and bakery, and the 
tavern, erected in 1642. 

The trading facilities at New Amsterdam 
brought from Fort Orange, New England, 
and Virginia, a greater number of visitors 
than the governor found it convenient to en- 
tertain, and at the Company's expense the fine 
stone tavern was built, with its " crow-step 

' Mrs. Lamb's History of New York. 



^37 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

gables "and brick-floored " stoup." It stood 
alone, facing the water, on ground that was 
later called Parel Straat, from the many shells 
that lined its shore, at a period when the land 
forming the present Water, Front and South 
streets was all beneath the tide. Within this 
primitive predecessor of many city hostelries, 
it was the duty of the "goode vrouw" or her 
maid to show the traveller to his room and 
open for him the bedstead, and, after he had 
retired, to return and blow out the candle. 
In the morning the curtains must be drawn 
at the hour he had fixed to rise. 

The fort occupied the space now bounded by 
Bowling Green, Whitehall, Bridge and State 
streets, and around its walls were clustered the 
humble homes of the first settlers. Before many 
streets were laid out, there were two roads from 
the fort, one extending in a northerly direc- 
tion and destined to become De Heere Straat, 
the early Broadway; while the other, along 



38 



Peaceful Progress 

the water-front, led to the ferry which, about 
1642, was opened to Long Island. The land- 
ing-place on Manhattan Island was near the 
spot now occupied by Peck's Slip, and on Long 
Island, at a point almost identical with the 
present terminus of Fulton Ferry. Cornelis 
Dircksen, whose bouwerie on Manhattan lay 
in the vicinity of the landing, was summoned 
by a horn which hung against a tree, and for 
three stivers in wampum carried the passen- 
ger in his skiff to the opposite shore. 

After roads had been planned, the houses 
were built with gable ends upon these high- 
ways. The first dwellings had usually two 
rooms on the ground floor and a garret above; 
but when larger houses were erected, an acute 
angle of roof elevation above the wall was 
considered a mark of aristocratic pretension, 
and often gave room for garret, loft, and cock- 
loft. The great fireplaces were sometimes six 
feet in height, with a stone oven at the side. 



39 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

About 1660 a brickyard was established on 
Manhattan Island, and opportunity was af- 
forded for architectural decoration when, to 
avoid waste, the bricks that were baked black 
were used for ornamental designs or distinc- 
tive checker-work upon the gable ends of 
new domiciles. The home of Jeronimus Eb- 
bing, in Brouwer Straat, was distinguished 
above its neighbors as a building of brick, two 
stories high; and Peter Cornelisen Vander- 
vier's house, on the corner of the present 
Whitehall and Pearl streets, attained honor- 
able mention for the same reason. Great care 
was taken in the selection of material for the 
low, unplastered ceilings, whose beams were 
often ornamented with carvings. The aver- 
age value of a dwelling was about one hun- 
dred and twenty-five dollars, and an average 
house-rent about twenty-five dollars per an- 
num. Hendrick Van Dyck and his wife Du- 
vertie Cornelisen, who lived on the west side 



140 



Peaceful Progress 

of the Heere Straat, possessed some notable 
shade trees, imported from Holland, as well 
as a still more famous peach orchard. There 
is a record of a wedding at their house in 
1655, when their daughter Lydia married 
Nicholas De Meyer, and a rival lover came 
as unbidden guest to interrupt the festivities. 
On one corner of Whitehall and Pearl streets 
a swinging sign gave notice that Surgeon Hans 
Kierstede dispensed drugs, performed ampu- 
tations, and extracted teeth ; and between Wall 
Street and Maiden Lane extended the bou- 
werie of Jan Jansen Damen. Mrs. Damen 
appears to have been a woman of unfettered 
action and great freedom of expression. She 
is credited with having influenced her son- 
in-law Van Tienhoven to slaughter the In- 
dians, and her name has descended to history 
as that of a Dutch daughter of Herodius, who 
danced through the lanes of New Amster- 
dam with the bleeding head of a savage. 



141 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

An inlet of the bay extended over the line 
of the present Broad Street, and into this a 
marshy district, lying above the Beaver's Path, 
was drained by a brook which came from the 
sheep pasture on the north. The canal, six- 
teen feet wide, was known as De Heere Gracht 
(the Great Drain). Soon after the incorpora- 
tion of the city, its sides were lined with planks, 
and its banks were then considered a desira- 
ble locality for the finest residences. The first 
mention of "Smid's Vleye" or the Smith's 
Valley occurs in De Vries' ** Voyages." It was 
the old name for the marshy ground between 
Pine, Fulton, and Pearl streets, and it is re- 
corded that on one of the patroon's visits to 
New Amsterdam, his ship being in need of re- 
pairs, was hauled into the " Smid's Vleye." 

As early as 1643, a lot opposite the Bowl- 
ing Green was granted to Martin Cregier, 
probably the first lot laid out on the Heere 
Straat. For a house-lot, thirty by one hundred 



142 










Viezv of the "GRAFT'', or Canal, in Broad Street, and the 
FISH BRIDGE, i6j9 



Peaceful Progress 

and twenty-five feet, the average price at that 
time was equivalent to twelve dollars, but a 
transfer is on record of a lot thirty feet front 
by one hundred and ten deep for nine dollars 
and sixty cents.This property, located on what 
was later known as Bridge Street, was con- 
veyed by Abraham Van Steenwijck to An- 
thony Van Fees. 

When the settlement had attained to the 
employment of a herdsman, the cattle were 
every morning driven out to "the Flat," the 
locality of the present City Hall Park, whence 
at evening they were guided home through 
the cherry orchard, and along the borders of 
the swamp. 

The Dutch settlements on Long Island 
had hitherto been chiefly confined to the dis- 
tricts known as the Waal-boght and the 
Roode Hoek, but Kieft bought large tracts 
of land from the Canarsie Indians, and after 
the grant to Lord Stirling, the English set- 



143 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

tiers on the eastern end of the island came 
often in conflict with their "noxious neigh- 
bors," the Dutch. 

Soon after 1642, a group of houses known 
as "The Ferry" were clustered about the 
boat-landing, while bouweries bordered the 
heights, and extended inland along the line of 
the present Fulton Street. In 1 646, the settlers 
requested permission " to found a town at their 
own expense," and Kieft, promptly giving per- 
mission for the deed, confirmed the election of 
Jan Evartsen Bout and Huyck Aertsen as first 
schepens of Breuckelen. 

There are records of some bickerings among 
the early colonists besides those between the 
governor and the dominie. When Mrs. Bo- 
gardus, on social duties intent, went to call 
upon a member of her husband's flock, she 
discovered upon reaching the entry of the 
house that another visitor named Grietje 
Reniers was within. Grietje's reputation in 



144 



Peaceful Progress 

the colony was not praiseworthy, and the 
dominie's wife, wishing to avoid a meeting, 
decided to postpone the call. But, as she 
started homeward, Grietje followed, com- 
menting upon the incident with unpleasant 
vehemence; and when, in passing a black- 
smith's shop, where the road was muddy, 
Annetje slightly raised her skirts, Grietje's 
remarks concerning the display of pretty feet 
were very disagreeable. The dominie, to 
whom they were reported, considered a rep- 
rimand necessary and the affair was finally 
brought before the court, by whom Grietje 
was compelled to pay a fine, while her hus- 
band, who was in arrears for church dues, 
was forced promptly to settle those accounts. 
In 1 64 1 a more serious quarrel occurred 
among slaves of the West India Company, 
and one man was murdered. Six negroes 
were implicated in the crime, and to discover 
the real criminal the common method of tor- 



145 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

ture was proposed. To escape this the negroes 
all professed responsibility for the deed, and 
the director, unwilling to lose so many ser- 
vants, decided that lots should be drawn to 
determine who must expiate the murder. 
The victim designated by this process was a 
man of huge stature, who was known as the 
giant, and although two ropes were employed 
to lift him upon the gallows, these supports 
gave way and he fell to the ground. The 
assembled multitude then begged so earnestly 
for his life that pardon was granted. 

Much trouble was created in New Amster- 
dam by the circulation of poor wampum. 
The best wampum was manufactured by the 
Long Island Indians, but an inferior article 
made in New England was soon brought into 
New Netherlands. In 1641 the first law 
passed to regulate the currency ordained that 
all coarse sewant should pass for one stiver. 
The value of good wampum was estimated 



146 



Peaceful Progress 

by the fathom, and when this unit of measure 
was defined as, " as much as a man could 
reach with his arms outstretched," the shrewd 
Indians, when disposing of beaver skins, chose 
their tallest men for traders. 

A book published in Holland in 1671 re- 
cords that while in converse with one of the 
savages employed as intermediary in termi- 
nating the Indian wars, Kieft noticed that his 
face was streaked with a glittering yellow 
substance, and suspecting the presence of gold 
in the mineral used, he succeeded in procur- 
ing a sample for the crucible. According to 
the chronicle, the result of his experiment 
was shown in two pieces of gold valued at 
three guilders. Arend Corsen was immedi- 
ately dispatched to Holland with samples of 
the ore, but the ship in which he sailed never 
reached its destination, and the search for 
precious metal was not pursued by the Dutch. 

Valentine gives an interesting extract from 



H7 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

some official records during Kieft's adminis- 
tration, wherein deeds for the conveyance to 
the West India Company of lands on Long 
Island are signed in Indian fashion by the 
original proprietors/ 



The established mark of Sey Sey. 




The established mark of Sipento. 

The established mark of 
Ponltarannackhzne. 



^Valentine's Manual iox 1847, p. 143. 



148 



X 

The Honorable Peter Stuyvesant. 1647— 1653 

5S********SE came like a peacock, with great 
§ I I ^ state and pomp," said an old 
? J t $ writer describing the arrival of 
»^i^*****^ Stuyvesant. Salutes from the fort 
almost exhausted New Amsterdam's supply 
of powder, while the rejoicing colonists 
shouted and cheered in response to the new 
governor's declaration, " I shall rule you as 
a father his children." 

It was the eleventh of May, 1647, for al- 
though the ship had left Holland on Christ- 
mas Day, the West Indies and the scenes of 
Stuyvesant's early exploits at Cura9oa had 
been visited before its course had been di- 
rected to Manhattan Island. The man de- 
scribed by Washington Irving as " a valiant, 
weatherbeaten, mettlesome, obstinate, leath- 



149 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

ern-sided, lion-hearted old governor" had 
been trained by many experiences before his 
appointment to rule in New Netherland. 

The son of a clergyman of Friesland, he 
had received a liberal education, and having 
chosen a military career, had early entered 
the service of the West India Company. 

A commission to be director of the colony 
at Cura9oa opened opportunities well suited 
to his daring temperament, at a period when 
the Hollanders stood strenuously opposed to 
every threatening force upon the sea; but 
having led an attack upon the Portuguese 
island of St. Martin, Stuyvesant was wounded 
in an unsuccessful conflict, lost a leg, and 
was forced to return to Holland for surgical 
aid. Restoration to health was followed by 
the acceptance of the appointment as gover- 
nor of New Netherland, and he arrived at 
Manhattan accompanied by his refined and 
attractive wife, his cultivated sister, Mrs. 



150 



Honorable Peter Stuyvesant 

Bayard, and her three little sons with their 
tutor. Van Dincklagen, Van Dyck, and sev- 
eral other officials, as well as a company of 
free colonists, came by the same vessel, and 
on the twenty-seventh of May the new 
director and his assistants were formally in- 
augurated. 

There was ample opportunity for the ex- 
ercise of Stuyvesant's imperious ability, for 
the disastrous Indian wars, and the rule of a 
man whom the people could not respect and 
hardly tolerated, had left all civil statutes 
in a condition of wavering force. Over the 
new court of justice, which was promptly 
established, Van Dincklagen was appointed 
judge, except on occasions when the director 
should himself see fit to fill the position. 
Stuyvesant's first proclamation, "done at 
Fort Amsterdam on the last day of May, 
1 647, " commanded a more strict observance 
of Sunday; forbade any liquor to be drawn 



151 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

on that day " before two of the clock in case 
there is no preaching, or else before four, 
except to a traveller and those who are daily- 
customers, fetching the drinks to their own 
homes." Innkeeper, landlords, and tapsters 
were forbidden to keep their houses open 
on any week day after the ringing of the 
bell at nine o'clock in the evening, and 
fines were imposed for "drawing a knife or 
sword rudely or in anger." 

The financial affairs of the colony were in 
chaotic confusion, and laws for the protec- 
tion of the revenue were promptly enforced. 
Excise duties were for the first time levied on 
liquors, and the export duty on peltries was 
increased, while, free from suspicion of re- 
proach, two of the Company's yachts were 
ordered to cruise in the West Indies for the 
purpose of capturing the rich galleons on their 
way from South America to Spain. 

The vigorous director did not neglect the 



152 



Honorable Peter Stuyvesant 

minor details of municipal interest. Proprie- 
tors of vacant lots were directed to improve 
them within nine months, or forfeit their 
titles to possession ; and Van Dyck, in his office 
of fiscal, was required to make complaint 
against all delinquents and transgressors of the 
military laws, "and all other our instructions 
and commands." The last comprehensive 
phrase was indicative of the new director's 
methods in legislation. His conception of the 
parental government he had promised in- 
volved only the promulgation of laws on his 
part and unquestioning obedience from the 
people. 

When, after Stuyvesant's arrival, Kieft form- 
ally resigned his office to the new director, a 
proposition to offisr the retiring officer the 
conventional vote of thanks was rejected by 
Kuyter and Melyn, two members of his 
council, on the just ground that they had no 
reason to thank him. These men subsequently 



153 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

presented a petition asking for a judicial in- 
quiry into Kieft's conduct as governor, but 
Stuyvesant, perhaps fearing to establish a 
dangerous precedent if he acceded to the re- 
quest, declared that it was " treason to peti- 
tion against a magistrate whether there was 
cause or not." 

Kieft revenged himself upon Kuyter and 
Melyn, by charging them with having been 
the authors of "a false and calumnious letter," 
prepared, he asserted, clandestinely, and sent 
in the name of the Eight Men to the College 
of XIX. To this charge the accused were 
ordered to reply within forty-eight hours; 
but when they brought evidence to sustain 
their charges against Kieft, their " frank an- 
swers" were adjudged an aggravation of their 
offense, and fiscal Van Dyck was ordered to 
prosecute them for having " fraudulently ob- 
tained the signatures of the Eight Men, to 
the letter," as well as for offences against the 



154 



Honorable Peter Stuyvesant 

Indians and toward the West India Company. 
Although these charges were fully answered 
by the accused, the prejudged case was soon 
decided against them, and both Kuyter and 
Melyn were banished from the province. The 
right of appeal to the fatherland was denied 
them, and Stuyvesant threatened to " hang 
them on the highest tree in New Nether- 
land," should they venture, subsequently, to 
carry the matter to the home authorities. The 
director openly declared, " If any one during 
my administration shall appeal, I will make 
him a foot shorter, and send the pieces to Hol- 
land, that he may appeal in that way." 

On the sixteenth of August, 1 647, Kieft set 
sail for Holland, taking Kuyter and Melyn 
with him as prisoners, and carrying away a 
private fortune, estimated at four hundred 
thousand guilders. In the same ship sailed 
Dominie Bogardus, who had resigned his 
charge that he might clear himself before 



^SS 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

the classis of Amsterdam of the accusations 
brought by Kieft. But their ship, the " Prin- 
cess," was never to reach its destination. It 
was wrecked off the coast of Wales, and about 
one hundred passengers, including Bogardus 
and Kieft, were drowned. Kuyter and Melyn 
were among the saved, and testified that 
in the time of peril Kieft had confessed his 
injustice, and asked their forgiveness. Before 
continuing their journey to Holland, these 
wise councillors had the waters dragged in 
the vicinity of the sunken ship, until the box 
containing their papers was recovered,^ and 
with these documents they secured from the 
States General justification for their conduct 
in New Amsterdam. 

After the treaty of peace some Indian tribes 
had evinced dissatisfaction with the presents 
distributed among them, and Stuyvesant, 
anticipating a renewal of hostilities, wished 

■ Fiske, Dutch and ^aker Colonies. 



56 



Honorable Peter Stuyvesant 

to " use dispatch " in repairing the fort. But 
for this work money was needed, and resis- 
tance to arbitrary taxation was continued. 
The council, therefore, advised concessions 
to the people, and, in September, 1 647, the 
residents of Manhattan, Breuckelen, Mid- 
wout (Flatbush), Amersfoort (Flatlands), 
and Pavonia were summoned to assemble at 
New Amsterdam, where an election was held 
at which eighteen of the " most notable, 
reasonable, honest, and respectable men " 
were chosen, from whom the director select- 
ed nine " to assist in promoting the welfare 
of the colony." ' 

Having assembled this council, Stuyvesant 
communicated to them his projects for re- 
pairing the fort, completing the church, 
which Kieft had begun five years previously, 

' The Nine Men were Augustine Heermans, Arnoldus Van 
Hardenberg, Govert Loockermans, jan Jansen Dam, Jacob Wol- 
fertsen Van Couwenhoven, Hendrick Hendricksen Kip, Machyel 
Janssen, Jan Evertsen Bout, Thomas Hall. 



^Sl 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

and providing a school-house. The represen- 
tatives of the people expressed their willing- 
ness to be taxed for the church and the school- 
house, but they declared that the expenses at- 
tending repairs upon the fort should be met by 
the West India Company, who were pledged 
to protect the colonists. 

While the discussion of these matters was 
engrossing his council, Stuyvesant's attention 
was called to affairs in other parts of the 
province. Commercial supremacy had been 
acquired by New Amsterdam through the 
prerogative of staple right, which gave that 
port a monopoly in the imposition of duties 
upon all goods carried up or down the river. 
Officers of the patroonship of Rensselaers- 
wijck claimed that this prosperous estate was 
held directly from the States General of Hol- 
land ; and, regardless of the authority of the 
West India Company, they assumed a right, 
from their fortress on Bear's Island, to collect 



.58 



Honorable Peter Stuyvesant 

a toll from every passing vessel, vi^ith the ex- 
ception of those in the Company's direct em- 
ploy. The commander on Bear's Island also 
decreed that in passing his fort every vessel 
should strike its colors in homage to the 
patroon, and when Govert Loockermans, on 
his way from Fort Orange to New Amster- 
dam, refused this expression of deference, his 
boat became a target for the guns of the 
island, though valiantly declaring, "I strike 
for nobody but the Prince of Orange and the 
States General," he pursued his way. 

In 1646, Brandt van Slechtenhorst was 
appointed to govern Rensselaerswijck, and 
seized the first opportunity for asserting his 
disregard for the authority of the New 
Netherland director. Stuyvesant, having ap- 
pointed a day of fasting and prayer for the 
province, sent the proclamation to Rensse- 
laerswijk, but Van Slechtenhorst refused to 
permit it to be publicly read, and openly de- 



159 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

iied the director when he arrived in person 
with a guard to enforce his authority. 

Further to show his independence, Van 
Slechtenhorst ordered the erection of some 
houses at forbidden places within range of 
the guns of Fort Orange, and hostiHties cen- 
tered at that point when, the director having 
ordered the palisades around the fort to be 
replaced by stone-work. Van Slechtenhorst 
forbade stone to be quarried or timber cut 
upon the patroon's estate. An order to pull 
down the newly-erected houses, and to arrest 
Van Slechtenhorst, increased the excitement 
and highly entertained the Indians. These 
phlegmatic people held their own opinion 
of Stuyvesant, whom they called ''Wooden 
Leg," and on the occasion of a dispute in 
which the honorable director had displayed 
more than his usual spirit, one of the Mo- 
hawks remarked," Wooden Leg very drunk ! " 
" Impossible ! " replied a Dutchman, '* the 



1 60 



Honorable Peter Stuyvesant 

governor never drinks to excess." " Not 
drunk with rum," continued the Indian, 
" Wooden Leg born drunk ! " 

Adriaen Van der Donck, a former sheriff 
of the colony of Rensselaerswijck, and a man 
of firm and high principles, soon acquired 
great influence in New Amsterdam. He was 
the first lawyer in New Netherland, and after 
leaving Rensselaerswijck he had settled on 
land north of Manhattan Island, which be- 
came known as de Jonkheer's land, Jonkheer 
being a Dutch title applied to the sons of 
noblemen ; and which, corrupted by the Eng- 
lish tongue to Yonkers, has perpetuated the 
name of a large estate. 

When the pressure of public sentiment 
forced Stuyvesant to concede some rights for 
which the people had long contended. Van 
der Donck was appointed secretary of the 
Nine Men. The increase of financial diffi- 
culties at New Amsterdam, where high duties 



i6i 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

restricted trade, induced these councillors to 
propose sending a committee to Holland, 
with requests for long-promised reforms ; and 
the director, designing to present to the States 
General his own conception of the situation, 
approved the project, but opposed it when he 
discovered the intention of the people to re- 
veal their point of view. 

The Nine Men promised to provide him 
with a copy of every statement in their com- 
munication, but Stuyvesant obstinately re- 
fused to sanction the preparation of the 
document, and forbade any assembly to be 
convened for discussion of the situation. 
Members of the council then secretly can- 
vassed the settlement to learn the sentiments 
of the people, and when this proceeding was 
discovered by the director he ordered the 
arrest and temporary imprisonment of Van 
der Donck, who was accused of seditious 
conduct, and, in opposition to the advice of 



62 



Honorable Peter Stuyvesant 

the vice-director, Van Dincklagen, was ex- 
pelled from the council. 

Meanwhile the States General had sus- 
pended the sentence against Kuyter and 
Melyn, and cited Stuyvesant to appear at the 
Hague, either in person or by deputy, to 
justify his decree against the two men. In the 
midst of the excitement caused by Van der 
Donck's arrest, Melyn returned, bringing this 
order and his own exoneration, and demanding 
that both documents should be publicly read. 
Stuyvesant was compelled to comply, but re- 
fused to reverse his own sentence against 
Melyn, and the latter again left New Amster- 
dam. The director wrote to the States Gen- 
eral that if discharged by the Company, he 
would appear in response to their command, 
but otherwise he would send an attorney ; but 
he ventured no longer to interfere with the 
action of the Nine Men, and, in July, 1649, 
they addressed a document to their High 



163 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

Mightinesses of Holland, petitioning for the 
establishment of a burgher government at 
New Amsterdam, and the settlement beyond 
dispute of boundary lines. A " Remonstrance" 
from the people, signed by a committee of 
eleven, was also prepared, detailing griev- 
ances and soliciting relief, and Van derDonck, 
Van Couwenhoven, and Jan Evertsen Bout, 
were commissioned to carry the papers to 
the Hague.' 

But though the home government saw "no 
reason to object to a commission for the 
settlement of boundaries " the first request 
was not granted, and the West India Com- 
pany upheld the action of Stuyvesant, who, 
thus encouraged, became more imperious 
than ever. He had appointed the crafty Van 
Tienhoven to represent him at the Hague, 

' The memorial was signed on behalf of the people by Augus- 
tine Heermans, Arnoldus Van Hardenberg, Jacob Van Couwen- 
hoven, Machyel Janssen, Thomas Hall, Elbert Elbertsen, Govert 
Loockermans, Hendrick Hendricksen Kip, and Adriaen Van der 
Donck. 



164 



Honorable Peter Stuyvesant 

and this ambassador reached Holland soon 
after Melyn's arrival. During the winter of 
1649—50 the discussion of colonial affairs 
dragged its slow length along before the States 
General, while the Dutch people were read- 
ing Van der Donck's '* Vertoogh " descriptive 
of New Netherland ; and, alluding to the in- 
fluence of that little book, the West India 
Company wrote to Stuyvesant, "The name of 
New Netherland was scarcely ever mentioned 
before, and now it would seem as if heaven 
and earth were interested in it." 

In New Amsterdam the months were mem- 
orable for financial difliculties and scarcity 
of food. When Stuyvesant supplied a vessel 
for Cura9oa with provisions of which the 
colonists had need, the council remonstrated, 
and a quarrel ensued, which culminated in 
an open rupture when the delegates to 
Holland returned, bringing a stand of colors 
for the burgher guard : Stuyvesant refused to 



■6s 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

allow these insignia to be presented, and in 
a childish determination to take revenge 
upon the Nine Men for opposition to his 
will, he deprived them of their special pew 
in church. 

But the governor's attention was diverted 
from the complications at New Amsterdam 
by matters connected with the New Eng- 
land colonies, where jealousies against New 
Netherland were still fostered. Soon after 
his arrival in New Amsterdam, Stuyvesant had 
dispatched a letter to Governor Winthrop, 
wherein, alluding to the "indubiate rights 
of the Dutch" to the territory they occupied, 
he had proposed an adjustment of all exist- 
ing claims. Winthrop communicated the 
contents of the letter to the New England 
commissioners, then assembled at Boston, but 
although some of the delegates were in favor 
of accepting the proposal for a conference, 
the Connecticut people thought "it would 



1 66 



Honorable Peter Stuyvesant 

be more to their advantage to stand upon 
terms of distance." 

When Cromwell arose to power in Eng- 
land, the West India Company sent a mes- 
sage to Stuyvesant to "live with his neighbors 
on the best terms possible," and, as there 
were claims to be adjusted on Long Island as 
well as in New England, arrangements were 
at length made for a meeting at Hartford. 
Stuyvesant and his suite, travelling in state 
by way of Long Island Sound, arrived after 
four days at their journey's end, where "the 
great Muscovy Duke," as Van Dincklagen 
called the director, gave offense immediately 
by dating the first paper he presented from 
"Hartford in New Netherland." His apology 
was accepted, however, and the discussion of 
territorial rights was amicably continued for 
several days. At last it was agreed to submit 
the decision to four arbiters, and George 
Baxter, Stuyvesant's English secretary, and 



167 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

Thomas Willett of Plymouth were chosen 
for the Dutch, and Simon Bradstreet and 
Thomas Prince for the EngHsh. They de- 
cided that the boundary Une between Eng- 
Hsh and Dutch possessions on the main land, 
starting east of Greenwich Bay, four miles 
from Stamford, should run north, but never 
come within ten miles of the Mauritius 
River; while on Long Island the line of sep- 
aration should cross from Oyster Bay to the 
Atlantic. 

Concerning this conference, it was after- 
wards written, ** The English entertained the 
director of New Netherland like a prince, 
but he never imagined that such hard pills 
would be given him to digest!" and when 
Stuyvesant heard the arbiters' decree he ex- 
claimed, ** I have been betrayed ! " This treaty 
of 1650 was, however, never formally rati- 
fied by the English, whose policy would not 
permit so direct a recognition of the province 



168 



Honorable Peter Stuyvesant 

of New Netherland; and the fact that Stuy- 
vesant had consented to the appointment of 
Englishmen as arbiters for the Dutch raised 
a storm of opposition in New Amsterdam. 
The Nine Men declared that "the director 
had ceded away territory enough to found 
fifty colonies, each four miles square," ' and 
again called attention to " the grievous and 
unsuitable governor of New Netherland."^ 

Soon Captain John Underbill, who had quar- 
relled with Stuyvesant, offered his services to 
the English, and, sailing up the Connecticut, 
posted upon the abandoned Fort Good Hope 
a notice that it had been confiscated, and thus 
ended the Dutch domain in New England. 

Upon Stuyvesant's return to New Amster- 
dam, he was so exasperated by the conduct 
of the Nine Men that, at the next election, 
he refused to fill the vacancies in their board; 

' Mrs. Lamb's History of New York. 
2 Holland Doc. 



169 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

and when Van Dincklagen and Van Dyck 
wrote to the Holland government, protesting 
against the director's methods, and once more 
calling attention to the dissatisfaction among 
the colonists, those officials were expelled 
from the council. 

Van Dincklagen denied Stuyvesant's pre- 
rogative in this action, and refused to abdi- 
cate, on the ground that he had been installed 
by the higher authority of the States General ; 
but the audacious governor summarily com- 
manded the vice-director to be seized and 
thrown into prison. Although released in a 
few days. Van Dincklagen was not reinstated, 
but, joining Melyn on Staten Island, he there 
awaited the turn of the tide. 

At the patroon's fortress on Bear's Island, Van 
Slechtenhorst continued to repudiate the au- 
thority of the New Netherland governor, until 
Stuyv6sant compassed his arrest, when he was 
carried to New Amsterdam and imprisoned. 



170 



Honorable Peter Stuyvesant 

He escaped and returned to Rensselaers- 
wijck, but was soon drawn into a quarrel with 
Dyckman, the commander at Fort Orange, 
concerning the extent of their respective 
jurisdictions, and the excitement among their 
partisans grew so intense, that Stuyvesant's 
presence was necessary to subdue the tumult 
occasioned. Bv his command, Van Slechten- 
horst was again seized and taken to New 
Amsterdam, while the director issued patents 
to colonists sent by the West India Company, 
for land claimed by the patroon within the 
village of Beverwijck. 

During the course of these events, the vice- 
director's protest had been received by the 
States General, and, before their High Mighti- 
nesses, Van der Donck had replied to Van 
Tienhoven's defence of Stuyvesant. Believing 
his errand accomplished, Van Tienhoven re- 
turned to New Amsterdam, where his con- 
duct elicited the comment that he "was like 



171 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

an evil spirit scattering torpedoes." In 1652, 
he was appointed to fill Van Dyck's place as 
fiscal, while Carel Van Brugge succeeded to 
the vacated office of provincial secretary.^ 

Opposition to Stuyvesant's arbitrary rule was 
continued, at home and abroad, till it became 
evident to the directors of the West India 
Company that the province would be lost if 
concessions were not made, and, in 1652, 
they consented to the establishment of a 
burgher government at New Amsterdam, in 
which the two burgomasters, five schepens 
and a schout were to be elected by the people. 
At the same time the export duty on tobacco 
was remitted, the price of passage to New 
Netherland was reduced, ammunition was 
ordered to be sold *' at a decent price," and 
colonists were permitted to procure negro 
servants from Africa. 

But still greater honor awaited the active 

' Mrs. Lamb's History of New York. 



172 



Honorable Peter Stuyvesant 

settlement of eight hundred people. On 
the second of February, 1653, the city of 
New Amsterdam was incorporated, and a 
government was promised, modeled upon that 
of Amsterdam in the fatherland. Preceded by 
that honorable functionary, the **klink" or 
bell-ringer, the director-general and the 
magistrates went in august procession to the 
church to inaugurate the new city; and from 
his room in the fort, dedicated by an inscrip- 
tion to "the Son of Peace," the klink, on his 
return, had liberty, no doubt, to sound a glad 
accompaniment to the shouts of the people. 

But Stuyvesant still magnified his office, and, 
like Louis XIV, cherished the sentiment, 
*' I am the State." Although an election of 
burgomasters and schepens had been com- 
manded, the director, disregarding the order, 
assumed authority to name those officers, and, 
until compelled to surrender the privilege, 
presided at the meeting of the magistrates as 



173 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

often as he saw fit. The first burgomasters in 
office were Arendt van Hallan and Martin 
Cregier; the schepens, Wilhelm Beeckman, 
Paulus LeendertsenVan der Grist, MaximiHan 
Van Gheel, AUard Anthony, Pieter Wolfert- 
sen Van Couwenhoven; but the provincial 
secretary, Jacob Kip, was expected to do 
duty for the young city, and the provincial 
schout-fiscal was at first thought equal to the 
necessary functions in New Amsterdam. After 
a few months, however, a city schout was 
appointed, and Johann Kuyter, who in Hol- 
land had vindicated his name from Kieft's 
charges, was first chosen to fill the office, 
though before the commission reached him 
he was murdered by the Indians. 

The services of burgomasters and schepens 
were at first given without emolument, al- 
though the acceptance of office was compul- 
sory ; but before the first year of municipal life 
had passed, these officials found their duties 



^74 



4 







VIEW OF THE SITE OF THE PRESENT BATTERY 
IN 1656 



Honorable Peter Stuyvesant 

so arduous that they petitioned for salaries, 
and Stuyvesant granted to each burgomaster 
three hundred and fifty florins per annum, or 
about one hundred and forty dollars,' while 
each schepen received annually two hun- 
dred and fifty florins, equal to one hundred 
dollars. 

The place of Dominie Bogardus had been 
filled by Dominie Backerus who arrived with 
Stuyvesant; but, in 1649, he returned to Hol- 
land, and New Amsterdam was left without a 
minister until Dominie Johannes Megapo- 
lensis resigned his position at Rensselaers- 
wijck, where, since 1 642, he had preached to 
the Dutch and the Indians. Stuyvesant per- 
suaded him to take charge of the church in 
New Amsterdam, and there he remained un- 
til his death in 1669. 

' Records of New Amsterdam. 



^7^ 



I 



XI 

Under the City Fathers. 1652— 1658 

S********SN 1652, hostilities were reopened 

between England and Holland, 

and although Van Tromp and De 

8*******^ Ruyter were sweeping European 

waters with their broom-bedecked vessels, 

danger threatened the Dutch colonies in 

America. 

In New Amsterdam the magistrate or- 
dained precautionary measures, and secured 
from the principal burghers a loan of live 
thousand and fifty florins for the purpose of 
repairing the fort. A ditch and palisades 
around the inland side of the city were also 
ordered to be constructed, and, that the de- 
fenses might be speedily completed, every 
man was required to assist in the work. When 
it was learned that military preparations were 



177 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

in progress in New England, a day of fasting 
and prayer was observed throughout the Dutch 
province, the work of fortifying New Am- 
sterdam was pressed by every possible effort, 
and a night-watch was posted at points of 
danger. The contemplated attack upon the 
city was, however, prevented by the refusal 
of the Massachusetts court to sanction the 
enterprise. Two years later, the height of the 
palisades was doubled, ** to prevent the over- 
loopin of Indians," and two entrances were 
constructed, the " Water Gate," at the pres- 
ent junction of Pearl and Wall streets, and the 
** Land Gate " where Wall Street meets Broad- 
way.' 

The large amount of money expended upon 
defenses had heavily taxed the people of New 
Amsterdam, and, in 1653, the burgomasters 
and schepens voted that nothing more should 
be contributed until the whole excise duty 

' Historic New York. 



178 



Under the City Fathers 

on wines and beer had been surrendered. Stuy- 
vesant refused to comply with this demand, 
but was forced finally to yield to the persist- 
ent claim of the sturdy burghers called to act 
as an advisory council, though he added the 
proviso that *' burgomasters and schepens shall 
furnish subsidies, by which the public works 
may be repaired." 

Then the magistrates decided that money 
should be raised by a direct tax upon citizens, 
in proportion to their wealth, and, in 1 6 5 5 , the 
sum of seven thousand guilders was thus added 
to the city treasury. The largest amounts were 
paid by P. Stuyvesant, C. Van Tienhoven, A. 
Anthony, O.S.Van Cortlandt, J. P. Bruggh, 
C.Steenwyck, Govert Loockermans, Jacobus 
Backer, J. L. Van der Grist, J. Van Couwen- 
hoven, P. L. Van der Grist, J. Nevius, J. de 
Peyster, Martin Cregier, Domini Megapolen- 
sis, Domini Drisius, Jeremias Van Rensselaer, 
Isaac de Forest, Cornelis Van Ruyven, Wil- 



179 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

helm Beeckman,HendrickVan Dyck, Ludo- 
wyck Kip, Arent Van Corlear, Jacob Kip, 
Isaac Kip, Conraet Ten Eyck, Abram Ver- 
planck, P. C. Van derVeen, H. J. Vandervin. 
Alarm was again excited by news that Eng- 
lish war vessels had arrived at Boston, and an 
immediate attack might be expected. This 
was no idle rumor, for the ships had delayed 
only to gather an additional force from the 
New England troops, and, but for a sudden 
change in European tactics, the Dutch do- 
minion in America might have been swiftly 
terminated. But just as the British force, num- 
bering nearly a thousand men, was about to 
set sail from Boston, peace between England 
and Holland was proclaimed. Danger to New 
Amsterdam was again averted, and a day of 
thanksgiving was observed throughout the 
province. The proclamation read, " Praise the 
Lord, O England's Jerusalem ; and Nether- 
land's Zion, praise ye the Lord ! He hath se- 



i8o 



Under the City Fathers 

cured your gates and blessed your possessions 
with peace, even here where the threatened 
torch of war was Hghted." 

The spirit of unrest fitfully manifested up- 
on Long Island, in criticism of the govern- 
ment, was, in December, 1653, openly 
revealed by a popular assembly, where dele- 
gates from Breuckelen, Vliessingen (Flush- 
ing), Middleburg (Newtown), Hempstede, 
Gravesend, Midwout (Flatbush), and Amers- 
foort (Flatlands), demanded for their dis- 
tricts the laws in force in the fatherland. 
Against Stuyvesant's autocratic rule they 
threatened to protest to the States General, 
and although the unpopular director declared 
that his authority was derived "from God 
and the Company," another appeal from his 
judgments was forwarded to Holland. 

The friendly relations long maintained be- 
tween the Dutch and their neighbors on 
the South River had been interrupted after 



181 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

the accession of Charles X to the Swedish 
throne; and while Stuyvesant, occupied with 
the danger threatening New Amsterdam, was 
unable to defend the distant post. Fort Casi- 
mer, a stronghold built in 1650, had been 
seized. In the autumn of 1653 a Swedish 
ship, having wandered from its course and 
entered the lower bay, was captured by the 
Dutch, and brought to Fort Amsterdam; 
while a message was conveyed to the Swed- 
ish commander on the South River, stating 
that the prize would be retained until " a 
reciprocal restitution should be made." 

When all danger of attack from the Eng- 
lish seemed averted by the consummation of 
peace in Europe, Stuyvesant projected a 
voyage to the West Indies for the purpose 
of promoting the commercial interests of his 
infant city, and the administration of affairs 
during his absence was committed to the 
vice-governor, De Sille and the council. 



182 



Under the City Fathers 

The burgomasters and schepens passed a 
resolution "to compliment" the director 
before his "gallant voyage," and to provide 
"a gay repast" in the council chamber of 
the Stadt-Huys. In response to this courtesy 
the governor presented the city with a seal, 
bearing a beaver for its crest, while the arms 
of the old city of Amsterdam, the initial 
letters indicating "Chartered West India 
Company" and the legend "Sigillum Ams- 
tellodamensis in Novo Belgio" were all 
within a border of laurel leaves. 

After a fruitless journey, Stuyvesant returned 
and found awaiting his arrival a fleet of four 
vessels from Holland. They bore orders that 
the director should assemble an additional 
force in New Netherland, and drive the 
Swedes from the South River. Preparations 
for an expedition to that locality were im- 
mediately begun, and in September, with 
seven hundred soldiers, the governor arrived 



183 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

at Fort Casimer. The Swedes, having no suf- 
ficient opposing force, immediately capitu- 
lated and while, with sounding bugles and 
flying colors, the Dutch took possession of 
the stronghold, the colony swiftly changed its 
allegiance from Sweden to Holland. 

During Stuyvesant's absence on this expedi- 
tion, events prolific of dire results occurred 
in New Netherland. Van Dyck having dis- 
covered an Indian woman stealing peaches 
in his orchard, hastily shot her. A few days 
later nearly two thousand warriors arrived in 
canoes at Manhattan Island, and, under pre- 
tense of a search for Mohawks, thronged 
the streets and entered the houses. The offi- 
cers of the city invited the sachems to a con- 
ference at the fort, and persuaded them to 
withdraw their warriors to Nutten Island. 
But when darkness arrived, and the terrified 
populace were again in their homes, the 
savages returned, and proceeding to Van 



184 



Under the City Fathers 

Dyck's house on the Heere Straat (Broad- 
way), they struck him down with an axe, 
and killed also a neighbor who attempted a 
rescue. The citizens, seizing their arms, joined 
the burgher guard in the defence of their 
homes, and the Indians were driven to their 
canoes, but the spirit of vengeance was not 
satiated. 

Soon the country was thrilled by news of 
burning settlements at Hobokenand Pavonia, 
and desolated farms on Staten Island, where 
one hundred persons had been massacred, 
and one hundred and fifty made captives. 
Colonists thronged to the fort for protection 
against prowling savages, and Stuyvesant was 
hastily summoned from the South River. The 
valiant old soldier adopted a wise policy of 
conciliation, and succeeded in concluding 
with the sachems a treaty of peace. Many 
prisoners were ransomed, and the people, 
once more relieved from fear of attack, ad- 



185 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

justed themselves anew to their conditions of 
life, while the magistrates industriously en- 
acted ordinances for the benefit of a city 
already cosmopolitan. During the wars in 
Kieft's administration, the population of 
New Amsterdam had been reduced from 
nearly twenty-five hundred to about eight 
hundred. In 1656, when a census was taken, 
there were, including the negro slaves, a 
thousand people in the city, and it was as- 
serted that no less than eighteen dialects were 
spoken in the streets. 

In 1657, municipal privileges, known in 
Holland as Burgher Rights, were introduced. 
To those who did not receive the preroga- 
tives by inheritance of station, the Great 
Burgher Right might be secured by the pay- 
ment of fifty guilders. It was a necessary 
qualification for any city office, and for a cer- 
tain period it exempted the holder from 
" watches and expeditions," and freed him 



186 



Under the City Fathers 

from liability of arrest by any inferior court 
in the province. Possessors of the Small 
Burgher Right were enabled to keep " an 
open store in the city in a hired or owned 
room," and for this privilege a preliminary 
fee of twenty-five guilders was required. 

Soon after the act of incorporation had been 
passed, Stuy vesant addressed a communication 
to the magistrates, in which we find intima- 
tions that even in the budding city official 
promises sometimes failed of prompt fulfill- 
ment. In this interesting document, the gov- 
ernor announced to his " Honorable, Dear, 
and Distinguished Friends," that hogs have 
damaged the walls of the fort, and as "pigs 
are seen daily upon these defenses," burgo- 
masters and schepens are requested, in accord- 
ance with former promises, to "give an order 
and prevent the pigs.'' 

Burgomasters and schepens then decided to 
engage a herdsman, but apparently the evil 



187 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

was not remedied, for, in August, 1653, we 
find on record another letter from Stuyvesant 
to his "Respected and Ven^ Dear," wherein, 
after calUng attention to "the injurious and 
intolerable destruction daily committed by 
the hogs," he proceeds to threaten that, as 
" Burgomasters and schepens, in violation of 
their solemn promise, will not lend a hand in 
repairing and strengthening the walls, they 
must "clear themselves of all damage and in- 
jury that may follow."^ After this rebuke, the 
guardians of the law evidently determined 
to shift some of their responsibilities to the 
shoulders of the citizens, for the court mes- 
senger was instructed to notify the burghers 
that every one should take care of his own 
hogs until the fort had been fenced in with 
palisades. Five years later, another ordinance 
was rendered imperative by the fact that 
roads and streets were injured by the same 

' Records of New Amsterdam, vol. i . 



188 



Under the City Fathers 

inquisitive peregrinating animals, and their 
owners were ordered to "put a ring through 
the noses of pigs to prevent them from root- 
ing." 

An ordinance of 1647 had commanded all 
inhabitants of New Netherland to fence their 
land that cattle might not trespass, and soon 
afterwards surveyors were appointed to deter- 
mine the limits of lots. Inspectors of chim- 
neys were responsible for proper cleanliness 
within the circle of their espionage, and the 
building of wooden or plastered chimneys 
was forbidden, although those already com- 
pleted might be used if properly protected. 
If anybody's house was burned, however, 
"either by negligence or his own fire," the 
owner was condemned to pay a fine. 

Regulations concerning the drawing of beer 
were repeated in 1648, with the revelatory 
comment that "profit being so easily made in 
that business, one-fourth of the city of New 



189 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

Amsterdam had been turned into taverns." 
Those engaged in taprooms were ordered to 
have also "another honest business, with a 
convenient and decent burgher dwelling." ^ 
In April, 1648, a proclamation was issued 
stating that, because the Sabbath had not been 
kept as intended, a sermon would be preached 
in the afternoon as well as in the forenoon, 
and during the hours of service all secular 
occupations were forbidden, and all persons 
were required to attend church. But some- 
thing more than repeated ordinances seemed 
necessary to ensure an observance of the day 
of rest, according to the Dutch dictum, for 
on September 28, 1660, it is recorded that 
the schout, Pieter Tonneman, fined the wife 
of Andraes Rees because there were ninepins 
at her house during preaching, and " the can 
and glass stood on the table," whereat, the 
defendant appeared in court and said that 

' Records oi New Amsterdam. 



190 



Under the City Fathers 

" some one came to her house who said that 
church was out." ' On the same date several 
persons were fined for having sold fish on 
Sunday, but as they proved that the deed was 
done before the ringing of the bell, their 
punishment was remitted. 

It seems evident that evasions of the law 
were frequent, and that the interval al- 
lowed for secular occupations gave abundant 
opportunity for excuses. On September lo, 
1663, it is verbosely recorded that "Where- 
as, Director General and Council of New 
Netherlands, experience and perceive that 
their previously enacted orders for the obser- 
vance of the Sabbath, conformable to God's 
law and their good intentions, are not ob- 
served," they " hereby order and command, 
that not only a part but the whole Sabbath 
shall be observed. Whereby, each and every 
one is hereby warned that pending the Sab- 

' Records of New Amsterdam. 



191 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

bath, from the rising to the setting of the sun, 
no customary labor shall be performed." ' 
After the prohibition of " all unusual exer- 
cises, such as games, boat, cart, or wagon- 
racing, fishing, sailing, nutting, or picking 
strawberries," the penalty for disobedience is 
declared to be, for the first offence, the for- 
feiture of the upper garment or the payment 
of six guilders. 

In the autumn of 1648, an ordinance for 
the protection of commercial interests de- 
creed that, " As Scottish merchants and small 
traders injure trade with underselling, and, 
having sold, return to their ships without any 
benefit to the country," ^ therefore, traders 
" shall not be allowed to do any business in 
the country unless they remain in New 
Netherland three consecutive years, and build 
in New Amsterdam a decent burgher dwel- 
ling-house, each according to his means. "^ 

' Records of New Amsterdam. ^ Ibid. 3 Ibid. 



192 



Under the City Fathers 

We find by examination of the court archives 
that Htigants presented their own cases. The 
lawyer Van der Donckwas refused permission 
to practice his profession, on the ground that, 
" as there was no other lawyer in the country 
there would be no one to oppose him." 

One year after the incorporation of the 
city, the first Ferry Ordinance was recorded. 
Under date of July i, 1654, it states that : 

Daily confusion occurring among the Ferrymen 
on Manhattan Island, so that the inhabitants are 
waiting whole days before they can obtain a pas- 
sage, and then not without danger, and at an ex- 
orbitant price. It is ordered by the Director Gen- 
eral and Council : 

I. That no person shall ferry from one side of 
the river to the other without a license from the 
magistrates, under a penalty of ^i flemish for the 
first offence, £^1 for the second, and ;^3, with con- 
fiscation of boat and corporal punishment, for the 
third infraction of this order ; one-third of the fine 
to be paid to the legal ferryman, one-third to the 



193 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

attorney general, and one-third at the disposition 
of the Judge. 

II. The Ferryman shall always keep proper ser- 
vants and boats, and a lodge on both sides of the 
river to protect passengers from the weather. 

III. The Ferryman is to be allowed for a wagon 
or cart (either with horse, oxen or a head of cattle): 
For a one horse wagotiy Fl. 2 10 sL 
For a plough^ FL 2 

For a hog^ sheep ^ buck or goaty j st. 

For a savage y male or female^ 6 st. 

For each other person^ j st. 

Half for a child under ten years. 

For a horse or four-footed horned beast y Fl. i. 10 st. 

For a hogshead of tobaccOy 16 st. 

For a tun of beery 16 st. 

For an anker of wine or spirits y 6 st. 

For a keg of butter or anything elsCy 6 st. 

For four schep els of corny 1st. 

IV. The Ferryman cannot be compelled to ferry 
anything over before he is paid. 

V. The hours of the ferry shall be from 5 o'clock 
A.M. to 8 P.M. in summer; after this last mentioned 
hour, double ferriage. 



194 



Under the City Fathers 

VI. From 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. in winter, but he is 
not obliged to ferry during a tempest or when he 
cannot sail. 

VII. The director and members of the council, 
the court messenger, and other persons invested 
with authority, or dispatched by the executive, are 
to be exempt from toll.' 

In January, 1656, a notable resolution was 
passed by the city fathers, when the treasury, 
being destitute of funds "to disburse there- 
from what the burgomasters and schepens 
should yearly receive as a salary," it was 
proposed "to open a city account and place 
the same to their credit, to be paid from the 
treasury when circumstances permit.'' 

To expedite trade, an ordinance of Septem- 
ber, 1656, proclaimed that, whereas, people 
from the country bringing wares to sell " re- 
main a long time to their damage" because 
the community were in ignorance of their 
arrival, therefore Saturday should thenceforth 

I Albany Records, VII, 267. 



195 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

be kept as a market day. ** Let every one who 
has anything to sell or buy, govern himself 
accordingly." ^ The market was held " at or 
around the house of Mr. Hans Kierstede, 
where, after him, everyone shall be permitted 
to buy or sell." 

Three years later, arrangements were made 
for an annual sale of cattle. This market was 
held on the green during six weeks of the 
autumn, and within that halcyon period no 
visitor in the city could be arrested for debt. 

As early as 1645, the youth of New Am- 
sterdam were instructed by Arien Van Offen- 
dam, whose terms for tuition were two dried 
beaver-skins per annum; but educational ad- 
vantages in the city suffered limitations, for 
although ** the bowl had been going round 
a long time for the purpose of erecting a 
schoolhouse," that structure had been "built 
with words" only. In 1652, the West India 

I Records of New Amsterdam. 



196 



Under the City Fathers 

Company wrote to Stuyvesant: "A public 
school may be established, for which one 
schoolmaster will be sufficient, and he maybe 
engaged at 250 florins annually. We recom- 
mend Jan de La Montagne — You may ap- 
propriate the city tavern for that purpose if 
practicable." 

Dr. La Montagne appears to have served 
the city in the capacity of schoolmaster, but 
there is no evidence that the tavern became 
a classic hall, and later records seem to in- 
validate that theory. In 1656, a "reverential 
request" to the burgomasters and schepens 
was presented by Hermanns Van Hoboocken, 
city schoolmaster, who desired the hall and 
side-room of the Stadt-Huys for the use of 
the school, as during the winter children 
require a place "adapted for fire and to be 
warmed." This modest application was sup- 
plemented by the more personal statement 
that as the petitioner "is burthened with a 



197 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

wife and children" he is greatly in need of 
a dwelling for them.^ In response to Ho- 
boocken's appeal, the room he asked for 
being "out of repair, and moreover wanted 
for other uses," the council voted one hun- 
dred guilders, **in order that the youth, who 
are here quite numerous, may have means 
of instruction." "" 

Efforts to establish private institutions of 
learning did not find favor in the eyes of all 
city officials. After Jacob Van Corlear, hav- 
ing secured a license, "arrogated to himself 
to keep school," though he was not ac- 
cused of any misdemeanor, except that of 
imparting knowledge, he was warned, by 
command of the governor and council, that 
his school-keeping must cease. But at length 
the colonists demanded that "in so wild a 
country" at least two good schoolmasters 
should be provided, and, in 1658, stimulated 

' Records of New Amsterdam. ^ Ibid. 



198 



Under the City Fathers 

perhaps by New England's attainments, the 
magistrates of New Amsterdam made a sig- 
nal effort to secure educational advantages. 
They wrote to the West India Company 
that most of the youth in the colony could 
read and write, and as some of the citizens 
would like to send their children to a teacher 
"who understands Latin," the Company was 
besought to send such an accomplished in- 
structor, for whom, on their part, the council 
promised to provide a schoolroom. 

The request appears to have been granted 
with unusual promptness, for the following 
year Alexander Carolus Curtius arrived. If his 
name was an emblematic guaranty of classi- 
cal culture, his learning must have been mar- 
vellous; but although suitable honors and 
emoluments were decreed him, he seems to 
have failed in ability as a disciplinarian, and 
he was soon succeeded by Egidius Luyck, who 
remained until the Dutch rule was ended. 



199 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

There is evidence that the teacher's pecuni- 
ary recompense was sometimes withheld. In 
court records of 1 66 1 , "Jan Rutgersen, pltf., 
vs. Mighiel Cuperus, deft." the plaintiff de- 
mands from defendant, thirteen guilders in 
sewant ; attorney of defendant answers, that 
defendant demands from plaintiff two quar- 
ters of a year's school money for his son's little 
boy, for whose schooling he contracted ; also 
for a leg of goat's meat, and says, ** he offered 
to let debt go against debt." Plaintiff says, 
he " did not agree for the little boy, and earned 
the little leg," which statement the honora- 
ble court ordered to be proven.^ 

In 1654, when the municipal government 
was organized, the stone tavern was appro- 
priated for civic purposes and called the Stadt 
Huys. This massive building, fifty feet square, 
was three stories high in the walls, with two 
more in the high peaked roof. Over the bench 

' Records of New Amsterdam. 



200 




1.1,5 



• 'i^';:«-a'l'' 



-rli* 




STADT HVrS, 

Corner of Pearl Street afid Coenties Alley 
Built in 1642 



Under the City Fathers 

of justice in the great court room hung a coat- 
of-arms sent from Holland for the young city, 
and the hall was gay with the orange, blue, 
and white of the West India Company. The 
building stood so close to the river that its 
walls were washed by the rising tide, until a 
barrier of stone was built along the shore. This 
protection, known as "the schoeyinge," was 
between the present Wall and Broad streets, 
and was formed by planks driven end-wise into 
the earth. 

In front of the Stadt Huys stood the gal- 
lows, and a platform, from which public no- 
tices were read after the bell had been tolled 
three times to assemble the citizens. In the rear 
of the Stadt Huys was Hoogh Straat, leading 
to the ferry. The same line of highway was 
called Brouwer Straat (the Brewer's Street) 
between the present Broad and Whitehall 
streets, and, early in 1658, in response to a 
petition from the citizens, the magistrates 



201 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

ordained that this section should be paved. 
Two burghers were appointed to superintend 
the work, for which owners of property along 
the line of this improvement were to be 
assessed. After the cobble-stone pavement was 
completed, the street was known as the Stone 
Street. Whitehall Street was first called Winck- 
el Straat, or the Shop Street, and was one of 
the thoroughfares early paved. Brugh Straat 
(Bridge Street) led to the largest of the bridges 
across the broad canal. At the end of the Beavers 
Path was the swamp included in the property 
owned by Wilhelmus Beekman. Coenties Slip 
was then an inlet upon land owned by Con- 
raet Ten Eyck, whose nickname " Coentje" 
has thus attained to fame. 

Some complaints brought before the magis- 
trates in the old Staat Huys, reveal amusing 
glimpses of life in those early days. On Feb- 
ruary I 8, 1658, before the council, Jan Cor- 
nelesen accused Rutgert Jansen of having 



202 



Under the City Fathers 

applied to him the opprobrious title, ** Indian 
dog," whereupon strife ensued until the schout 
interfered. Official evidence having proven that 
Rutgert had suffered a beating at the hands of 
the insulted Jan, the court sentenced theplain- 
tiff to pay the defendant twelve guilders, *' for 
smart and pain ' ' ; while the schout received his 
perquisite from Rutgert's penalty of six guil- 
ders for foul and abusive language." ' 

On June 8, 1660, the schout, De Sille, re- 
quested that Hans Dreper ** be condemned 
in a fine for the poor, as he did not hesitate 
to say before the court, * thou lyest ! ' " ' Hans 
was called in and informed that for this im- 
proper language he must pay to the poor the 
sum of six guilders. 

November 15, 1 66 1 , Mesaack Martens was 
tried for a theft of cabbages, which he ac- 
knowledged, and for having pawned a gown, 
taken without the knowledge of the owner 

• Records of New Amsterdam. 



203 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

from a chest left in his house. He was con- 
demned to stand in the pillory with cabbages 
upon his head, and then to suffer banishment 
from the city for five years. 

At intervals the names of some women of 
New Amsterdam appear upon court records. 
Anneke Kockz seems not to have possessed 
a placid temperament, as she was disciplined 
by the city fathers ** for pulling the cap off 
the head of Mrs. Jan De Witt, and pulling 
the hair out of her head."^ Some character- 
istics of another female were revealed by the 
complaint of Nicolaas Velthuysen that Saartje 
Sandels continued to '* ^oi censuring him." 
Saartje received a reprimand from the court, 
and was ordered ** not to go snapping and 
cackling."^ 

For a brief period the city annals are stained 
by a record of religious intolerance. In 1656, 
Stuyvesant refused the petition presented by 

' Records of New Amsterdam. ^Ibid. 



204 



Under the City Fathers 

German settlers for the establishment of a 
Lutheran church. The States General cen- 
sured this action, but when, in the following 
year, the Rev. Ernestus Goetwater came from 
Amsterdam with a commission to act as pas- 
tor for the Lutherans, he was arrested and 
sent back to Holland.' At Vliesingen (Flush- 
ing), the sheriff, William Hallett, was re- 
moved from office and fined for holding 
Baptist meetings at his own house ; but of all 
denominations the Quakers endured the most 
severe and unwarranted cruelty. Robert Hod- 
shone, while speaking at Hempstede, was 
seized, tied to a cart and dragged to New Am- 
sterdam, where he was thrown into a cellar. 
After several days he was taken before Stuy- 
vesant, who, enraged by Hodshone's refusal 
to take off his hat, sentenced him to the pay- 
ment of a heavy fine, or the performance of 
hard labor. Having no money for the fine, 

' Fiske, Dutch and Quaker Colonies. 



205 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

younger men were continually urging them to 
fight. "Let them come forth!" cried Stuy- 
vesant defiantly ; " I will place twenty men 
against fi^rty of your hot heads; but it is mean 
and contemptible to threaten farmers and 
women and children, who are not war- 
riors!"^ 

The governor had succeeded in efi^ectually 
humiliating the savages, and in gaining their 
respect. They brought some fathoms of 
wampum as reparation for their recent deeds, 
and selecting a plot of ground about two 
hundred and ten yards in circumference they 
proffered it to Stuyvesant, " to grease his feet 
after the long journey he had taken to visit 
them." This ground became the nucleus of 
the new village of Esopus (Kingston), and 
for its protection the governor left a guard 
of twenty-four soldiers. The colonists did 
not feel secure, however, until, in the autumn, 

' Mrs. Lamb's History of New York, 



208 



Under the City Fathers 

Stuyvesant again visited them and left fifty 
soldiers to guard the post. 

But it was the wickedness of the Dutch that 
again precipitated disaster. Upon an estate near 
Esopus seven or eight Indians were employed 
as servants, and one evening, having obtained 
some brandy, they became intoxicated, and 
by their shouts startled the settlers as well as 
the soldiers at the fort. Having ascertained the 
cause of the disturbance the officer in com- 
mand at the fort forbade his men to molest 
the offenders, but some of the colonists freely 
used their muskets, and several Indians were 
wounded. It was not long before their tribe 
retaliated. A host of savages besieged the fort 
at Esopus, while over the surrounding coun- 
try, burning houses and barns, slaughtered cat- 
tle, and tortured captives testified to the bitter 
enmity awakened. 

Stuyvesant was ill, but his energy was not 
abated. Taking with him as large a force as 



209 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

could be raised, he started for Esopus, and 
upon his arrival the foe fled. A truce was ar- 
ranged, but was trusted by few, and subsequent 
events justified the general doubt of savage 
faith. 



2IO 




GOl^. STUrrESJNT'S HOUSE, erected 1658, afterwards 
called ' ' THE I'FHI TE HAL L ' ' 



XII 

'The Coming of the English. 1 6 5 8— 1 664 

S********SIIEN Stuyvesant returned from 
;^\ II y J;Esopus, in the autumn of 1658, 
* y Y * repairs long contemplated upon 
»********« Fort Amsterdam were immedi- 
ately completed, and a stone wall, ten feet 
high, took the place of the old protecting 
palisades. In succeeding months of peace, the 
governor built for himself a mansion of stone, 
which, under English rule, was long known 
as the White Hall, and bequeathed a name 
to the street on which it fronted. The little 
city, with a population of about sixteen hun- 
dred souls, was pressing onward by every 
effort to achieve prosperity, when news was 
received of another swift revolution in Europe, 
and the ** restoration " of Charles Stuart to 
the English throne. 



211 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

The indolent sovereign who, according to 
his flattering courtiers, 

" Never said a foolish thing, 
And never did a wise one," 

took little interest in colonial affairs, but his 
council was forced to give attention to the 
proposed treaty of alliance with Holland, 
which, in September, 1 66 2,was consummated. 
In the spring of that year, John Winthrop, 
the younger, had made his historic voyage to 
London, wearing the ring which is said to 
have secured the Connecticut charter. By that 
document the assigned western limit of the 
English colony was the Pacific Ocean; and 
as its southern boundary in the sea included, 
besides the mainland, ** all the islands there- 
unto adjoining," Winthrop notified the in- 
habitants of Long Island, as well as those of 
Westchester, to send delegates to the court 
of Connecticut. When Stuyvesant protested 
against these comprehensive claims of the 



212 



The Coming of the English 

English, asking, " Where lies New Nether- 
land if Connecticut extends to the Pacific?" 
the Hartford committee calmly replied, '' We 
know not, unless you can show us your char- 
ter. 

In the summer of 1 663, a severe earthquake 
terrified the people of New England, and the 
Dutch colonists, from Beverwijck to New 
Amsterdam. Following the excitement thus 
aroused, came news of another Indian attack 
upon Esopus, where houses had been burned, 
women and children butchered, and many 
persons taken captive. 

Stuyvesant promptly dispatched to the lo- 
cality a body of troops, under command of 
Martin Cregier and Peter Van Couwenhoven; 
and guided by Rachel La Montagne,who had 
been carried away a prisoner but had escaped, 
the party found the fortress to which the sav- 
ages had first led their captives. But the place 
was deserted, and although the next morning 



213 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

Couwenhoven and his men pressed farther 
into the wilderness, guided by a squaw fa- 
miliar with the way, the search still proved 
fruitless. Then, with fifty-five men, Cregier 
set out, and after a march of two days achieved 
the object of the expedition. The savages were 
surprised in a stronghold recently built, the 
chief and fourteen warriors were slain, thir- 
teen prisoners were taken, and twenty-three 
captives recovered. By another expedition 
nearly all the remaining captives were soon 
rescued, and a nominal armistice was again 
arranged. 

An episode in English courts induced some 
changes in New Netherland, for the sub- 
ject of Lord Baltimore's claims was again 
agitated, and, with a view of more effectually 
securing their territory against English en- 
croachments, the West India Company trans- 
ferred to the burgomasters of Amsterdam 
all their rights over the district of the South 



214 



The Coming of the English 

River. The burgomasters appointed De 
Hinoyossa governor of the country, and upon 
his arrival at New Amsterdam, Stuyvesant 
ceded to him all authority over the southern 
division of the New Netherland province. 

In the autumn of 1663, the exigencies of 
colonial affairs demanded that commissioners 
should once more be sent to Hartford; but 
there was no money in the treasury for the 
expenses of the embassy, and so unstable 
seemed the situation that Stuyvesant could 
not borrow upon a government draft the sum 
of four thousand guilders, until, as security, 
he had pledged four of the brass cannon of 
the city fort. In November the city fathers 
sent a letter to Holland charging the West 
India Company with responsibility for the 
condition of affairs throughout the province, 
but no help came for their desperate need. 
Before long the villages on Long Island 
were threatened by an Englishman named 



215 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

John Scott, who, assuming official authority, 
announced that he would free "those who 
had been enslaved by the cruel and rapa- 
cious Dutch." New Amsterdam was again in 
danger, and in that "highly imperious ne- 
cessity" the director was urged to convoke 
a General Provincial assembly, "to enact 
what shall be found proper for the prosper- 
ity and peace of the province."' 

But, through the city records of March i8, 
1664, we learn that although the meeting 
was called in November, it was attended by 
deputies from neighboring towns only, the 
delegates from Rensselaerswijck, Beverijck, 
and Wildswijck "being unable to come 
down and sail back at the same time, owing 
to the inconvenience of the approaching 
winter." ' 

In April, 1664, the "inconvenient" obstacles 
of the winter being removed, a General As- 

' Records of New Amsterdam. ^Ibid. 



216 









g^^^^i^?i]t.^^"- 





l^'iew of the " SCHOEINGE'' or Sheet Piling on the East 
River Shore, near Coenties Slip, l6j8 



The Coming of the English 

sembly was convened at New Amsterdam, 
and the Hon. Jeremias Van Rensselaer was 
appointed chairman. Measures for raising 
money were discussed and another appeal to 
Holland was prepared, but no adequate pro- 
vision for united action was outlined, and 
the city continued dependent upon its own 
limited resources. 

Early in 1664, the records show that "the 
openness of the place along the water side, 
both along the East and North rivers, being 
notorious and manifest," it was deemed ad- 
visable "to set this off as quick as possible 
with palisades,"' but the city's income was 
insufficient to pay for the labor, and the di- 
rector was therefore requested to " lend the 
Company's negroes to cut and haul palisades 
with the city's negroes."^ On February 22, 
the magistrates recorded a proposition " to 
make the city strong with a stone wall on 

' Records of New Amsterdam. ^ /^y^^ 



217 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

the land side, and palisades along both the 
river fronts; the money required to be raised 
among the wealthiest inhabitants on condi- 
tion that they may have the tapster's excise 
on w^ine and beer.' 

This proposal having been favorably re- 
ceived by the council, was made known to 
the principal burghers of the city, and a loan 
of twenty-seven thousand five hundred florins 
was secured. 

Meanwhile the harassed governor of New 
Netherland had again been forced to con- 
tend with bands of maurauding Indians in 
the neighborhood of Esopus; — but, at last, 
three of the sachems came to New Amster- 
dam with propositions for peace, and, while 
the wife of Dr. Hans Kierstede acted as in- 
terpreter, a formal treaty was concluded. 

There was peace also in Europe between 
Holland and England, but it was the calm 

' Records of New Amsterdam. 



2l8 



The Coming of the English 

before the storm : Charles II issued in his 
brother's favor "that most despotic instru- 
ment recorded in the colonial archives of 
England," and the Duke of York fitted out 
the "Guinea," the "Elias," the "Martin," 
and the "William and Nicholas" for the 
conquest of New Netherland. Five hundred 
veteran troops were assigned to Colonel 
Richard NicoUs, who was appointed deputy 
governor of the province he was enjoined 
to conquer, and with whom sailed also the 
commissioners of a new government, Sir 
George Cartwright, Robert Carr,and Samuel 
Maverick. Bearing dispatches which com- 
manded the people of New England to "join 
and assist vigorously," they came sailing across 
the sea in August, 1664, and news of the event 
was borne swiftly to New Amsterdam. 

A council summoned to meet the emer- 
gency ordained that the city should be put 
in a state of defense, guards be constantly 



219 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

maintained, and to meet immediate expenses 
a loan from Rensselaerswijck should be so- 
licited. Ships on the point of sailing for 
Cura9oa were detained to give aid at home, 
and emissaries were sent forth to collect pro- 
visions, that the people might be able to 
withstand a siege. Then from blinded Hol- 
land came the message that the English fleet 
had been dispatched to establish an Episco- 
pacy in New England, and Stuyvesant, re- 
lieved from keen anxiety concerning his 
province, started upon an errand to Fort 
Orange. Fleet messengers were sent to recall 
him, bearing the startling tidings that the 
enemy were on their way from Boston to 
New Amsterdam. The governor returned at 
once, and three days after his arrival the 
English ships came into view. 

Every effort for defense was made. On the 
twenty-fifth of August, the council ordained 
that one-fifth of the inhabitants of the city 



220 




THE BLOCKHOUSE AND CITY GATE 

{Foot of the present Wall Street^, i6j4 



The Coming of the English 

should " appear in person, or put another in 
his place, furnished with a shovel, spade, or 
wheelbarrow, to labor every third day at the 
city's works."' 

The council was besought to ** favor the 
place " with " eight pieces of good and heavy 
cannon," twenty pieces being already pro- 
vided, and for each piece fifty pounds of 
powder were requested, with six hundred 
pounds of lead for bullets, to be used by the 
burghers for their muskets. A company of 
burghers appointed to keep guard at night 
asked that they might be strengthened by sol- 
diers, and that a day watch might be kept at the 
gates. All these requests were promptly grant- 
ed, and it was decreed that every person who 
should mount guard should receive a pound 
of powder, and a pound and a half of lead.^ 

But four hundred men were all that could be 
depended upon to bear arms, and six hundred 

' Records of New Amsterdam. ^Ibid. 



221 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

pounds of powder was all the fort possessed/ 
One thousand pounds of powder with six 
pieces oi artillerv' were secured from other 
points in the province, but Fort Orange 
could give no aid, owing to danger from the 
treacherous Indians. 

On that August morning, when, unan- 
nounced, the English tleet came to anchor off 
the Long Island shore, while English troops 
seized the block-house on Staten Island and 
a strong force was landed near Breuckelen, 
the undaunted governor of New Nether- 
land dispatched a deputation of four citizens 
with a letter inquiring the object of the visit. 
Inreplvcame the blunt message from Nicolls, 
that he had arrived to reduce the country- to 
obedience to the English sovereign, and on 
the following dav would send his communi- 
cation to Stuvvesant. At the appointed time. 
Sir George Cartwright, with a suite of three 

I Mrs. Lamb's History of New York. 



222 



The Coming of the English 

gentlemen, arrived at the fort and was re- 
ceived with salutes of honor. He bore from 
Nicolls to Stuyvesant a formal summons to 
surrender " the province of New Netherland 
with all its towns and forts," but to every in- 
habitant, life, liberty, and possession of his 
estate was promised. 

The city magistrates, realizing that resist- 
ance was vain, counselled submission, but 
Stuyvesant steadfastly asserted an inexorable 
determination to defend his post, and work 
upon the fortifications was continued. The 
burghers, holding a meeting at the Stadt Huys 
to discuss the terms Q>i surrender, addressed 
to the governor and council a remonstrance 
against the course of resistance. " Granting," 
they said, *' that the fort could hold out against 
its assailants, one, two, three, five, or six 
months (which to our sorrow it cannot), it 
is still undeniable that it cannot save the small- 
est portion of our entire city, our property. 



223 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

and what is dearer to us, our wives and chil- 
dren, from total ruin ; for after considerable 
bloodshed even the fort itself could not be 
preserved. Wherefore, to prevent and arrest 
all the aforesaid misfortune, we humbly and 
in bitterness of heart, implore your honors not 
to reject the conditions of so generous a foe.'* 

Stuyvesant, shortly asserting that surrender 
was out of the question, still tried to win ap- 
proval of his position, but tried in vain. The 
citizens clamored for the public reading of 
the summons from Nicolls, until the gover- 
nor unwillingly yielded the document. Then, 
under a flag of truce came Governor Win- 
throp of Massachusetts, accompanied by 
some English gentlemen who brought a sec- 
ond letter from Nicolls to Stuyvesant, in which 
a peaceful surrender was again urged, only to 
elicit another emphatic refusal. 

Governor Winthrop then passed to Stuy- 
vesant a letter which he had received from 



224 



The Coming of the English 

Nicolls, and which stated the policy to be 
pursued by the English in regard to New 
Netherland. This letter Stuyvesant read to 
the assembled burgomasters, who then re- 
quested permission to read it to the people; 
but the governor, considering this course in- 
judicious, refused to relinquish the paper, and, 
when urged to reconsider his refusal, wrath- 
fully tore the letter into fragments. This ac- 
tion failed to bring submission to his will ; 
the meeting broke up in confusion, and the 
angry councillors left the fort condemning 
the conduct of their governor. The people, be- 
coming aware of the condition of affairs, sud- 
denly ceased their work upon the fortifications 
and clamored for the director. Three reso- 
lute men appeared before Stuyvesant, and with 
threats demanded a copy of the letter he had 
destroyed ; while a tumult arose in the city 
which officials tried in vain to quiet. " The 
letter ! the letter ! " the people shouted around 



225 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

the fort, until Nicholas Bayard, Stuyvesant's 
secretary, gathering the scattered fragments ot 
paper, produced a copy which was given to the 
burgomasters, and publicly read. 
Letter from Xicolls to Winthrop : 

Mr. Winthrop : 

As to those particulars you spoke to me, I do 
assure you that if the Manhadoes ' be delivered up 
to His Maiestv, I shall not hinder, but any people 
from the Netherlands may freelv come and plant 
there, or thereabouts ; and such vessels of their 
owne countrv mav freelv come thither, and any of 
them may freely returne home in vessels of their 
owne countrv, and this & much more is contained 
in the privilege of His Ma]est)''s English subjects ; 
and thus much you mav, by what means you please, 
assure the governor from, Sir 

Your verv affectionate servant, 

Richard Nicolls. 

Stuvvesant prepared a reply to Nicolls' let- 
ter, asserting the title of the Dutch to New 

' The name bv which the pro\'ince of New Netherland was 
commonlv known. 



226 



The Coming of the English 

Netherland, by discovery, settlement, and pos- 
session, and, pointing out the weakness of the 
English claim, proposed to treat with dele- 
gates. He sent four of his most able coun- 
cillors to argue the subject with Nicolls, but 
all discussion was declined, and re-asserting a 
determination to take New Amsterdam by 
force if peaceful surrender was refused, the 
English commander began his preparations 
for storming the city. 

Summoning the people on Long Island, he 
proclaimed in their presence the patent from 
King Charles to the Duke of York, and 
promised to confirm all commissions pre- 
viously granted. From all points upon the 
island, volunteers joined his forces, and troops 
encamped below Breuckelen waited for the 
signal to attack the doomed city. It was 
rumored that six hundred savages and one 
hundred and fifty Frenchmen had also joined 
the English troops. 



227 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

On the fifth of September, Nicolls advanced 
and anchored his fleet between Fort Amster- 
dam and Nutten Island. Stuyvesant awaited 
the approach from an angle of the fort, an 
artillery man standing by his side, holding a 
lighted match. It was a pivotal moment ! 

" It is a matter of desperation, rather than of 
soldiership, to attempt to hold the fort," said 
Vice-Governor De Sille. 

" Do you not see that there is no help for 
us, either to the north or the south, the east 
or the west ? What can our twenty guns do 
in the face of sixty-two pointed toward us on 
yonder frigates? " queried Dominie Megapo- 
lensis. But the governor, obstinately brave, 
remained inflexible. 

Then a paper was presented, signed by ninety- 
three of the chief citizens, including bur- 
gomasters and schepens, and Balthazar Stuy- 
vesant, the governor's son. It besought the 
director to surrender, that the city might be 



228 



The Coming of the English 

saved from destruction, and the shedding of 
innocent blood avoided. The commander's 
only reply, " I had rather be carried to my 
grave ! " revealed a spirit still indomitable, 
but he yielded to the people's will and the 
white flag waved above the fort. 

The following morning, September 6, Eng- 
lish commissioners met with Dutch deputies 
to sign the twenty-four articles of capitu- 
lation by which New Amsterdam became 
New York. Security for property, customs, 
and conscience was guaranteed, a represen- 
tative government was promised, and until 
the usual time for a new election all civil of- 
ficers were to be retained in their positions. 
The terms imposed were accepted on behalf 
of Stuyvesant by Jan de Decker, Nicolas Var- 
lett, Samuel Megapolensis, Cornells Steen- 
wyck, Jacques Cousseau and Oloff Stevensen 
Van Cortland ; and, on September 8, the 
governor ratified the treaty. 



229 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

The Dutch garrison marched out of their 
frail fort with all the honors of war, Stuy- 
vesant leading his band; and, proceeding at 
once to the water-side, the troops were em- 
barked for Holland on the ship "Gideon." 
With ceremonious formalities, Nicolls was 
proclaimed deputy-governor of the English 
province, and Fort Amsterdam became Fort 
James. Two weeks later the English flag 
was raised above Fort Orange, which was 
then named Albany, and the entire territory 
granted to the Duke was in his honor called 
New York. 

Hostilities between England and Holland 
were immediately resumed; and, by angry 
directors of the West India Company, Stuy- 
vesant was soon summoned to render an 
account of his administration and to explain 
the surrender of his city. The burgomasters 
and schepens of New Amsterdam drew up 
a statement testifying that " during eighteen 



230 










GOVERNOR STUri^ESJNT'S HOUSE 

(/;/ M^ Bomverie) 



The Coming of the English 

years' administration his Honour hath con- 
ducted and demeaned himself not only as a 
director-general as, according to the best of 
our knowledge, he ought to do on all occa- 
sions, for the best interests of the West 
India Company, but besides as an honest 
proprietor and patriot of this province, and 
as a supporter of the Reformed Religion."' 
Other documents from prominent persons 
enabled the unhappy hero to vindicate his 
action before the States General, and in 
1667, after the peace of Breda, the ex- 
governor returned to his "bouwerie" in the 
city of New York. There he died in Febru- 
ary, 1672, and there his body was interred 
in a vault beneath the chapel he had built 
near his home. 

A century later, a great-grandson of the il- 
lustrious director donated land and money 
for the erection of the church of St. Mark, 

' Colonial Documents. 



231 



Annals of Old Manhattan 

which, in 1799, was completed upon the 
site of the ancient chapel. The vault remained 
undisturbed, and in the outer wall of the 
church a tablet indicates the spot where, 
"after life's fitful fever," rests the last gover- 
nor of New Netherland. 




Peter Stuyvesani's Tombstone 



232 



Index 



Amsterdam Chamber^ The^ 22, 30, 48, 93 
Assemblies^ Popular^ 106, 107, 113, 157, 181 
Assembly^ General Provincial^ 216, 217 

Parent sen ^ Peter^ 37 

Baxter^ George^ 167 

Blocks Adriaen^ 14, 15, 16, 17 

Blommaerty 46, 47 

Bogardus, Dominie, 53, 55, 57, 85, 130, 131, 155, 

156 
Boundary Lines , 168 
Bouweries, 66 
Bouwerie, The Bosson, 74 
Bradford, Negotiations with Gov., 37—42 
Bradstreet, Simon, 168 
Breuckelen, Incorporation of, 144 
Burgher Government, Establishment of, i']i 
Burgher Rights, 186, 187 
Burgomasters, First, 1 74 

Census of 16 c,6, 186 

Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions, 43-45 
Christiaenson, Hendrick, 14, 15, 16 
Church of St. Nicholas, 136-137 



233 



Index 

Churchy The Firsts 57 

City Officers J First, 1 74 

City Ordinances y 188-196 

City Seal, 1 83 

City T'axeSy 179 

Cohotatea River , The, 1 4 

Collect y The, 66 

College ofXIXy ThCy 49, 83, ia8 

Comforters of the Sick, 33, 64 

CommunipauWy Origin of, 47 

De Hinoyossa, 215 
Dernier, Thomas, 20 
Be Rasieresy 34, 37, 38, 40, 41, 50 
Be VrieSy Bavid Petersen, ^'],6g,']i,'] 1, 80, 84, 87, 
99,104,107,109, no. III, 114, 116, 121,135 
Be Witt, John, 1 5- 
Birckson, Cornelis, 139 

East India Company, The, 13 

Eelkens, Jacob, 22, 70 

Eight Men, Appointment of the, 113 

Ferry Ordinances, 193, 194, 195 
Fort Amsterdam, 33, 73 
Fort Amsterdam, Treaty (j/", 133 
Fort Casimer, Capture of, 1 84 
Fort Good Hope, 77, 98, 131, 169 



234 



Index 

Fort James ^ 230 
Fort Nassau^ ii^ 23, 83 
Fort Orange, 22, 36, 37, 46 
Fortune, The, 14, 15, 16 
Frederijke, Kryn, 23 
Fresh River, The, 1 6 

Godyn, 46, 47 

Half Moon, The, 13 
Hellegat, The, 16 
Hoboken-Hacking, 47 
House Lots, First, 142 

Incorporation of City, 1 73 

Indians, Expedition against, 1 23 

Indian Massacres, 185 

Indian Outbreaks at Esopus, 206, 209, 213 

Indian Signatures, 148 

Indians, Treaty with, 218 

Jacobson, Cornelis, 1 5 
y«»j-, Annetje, G';^^ 
Jansz, Roelof 62 

ir/<?//, William, 89-156 
Kierstede, Hans, 6^, 141 
Kuyter, Johann, 153, 155, 156 



235 



Index 

La Montagne^ Johannes^ 64, (it^^ 90, 122, 197 
Lampo^ Sheriff, 34, 50 
Loockermans, Govert, 159, 206 

Maiden s Lane, 'The, "^^ 
Manhattan, Fort, 18, 20 
Massacres at Pavonia and Corlear s Hook, 1 1 1 
Mauritius River, The, 17, 21, ^6 
Megapolensis, Dominie, 131, 175, 228 
Melyn, 153, i55> 156, 163 
Mey, Captain Cornelis Jacobsen, 17, 24 
Michaelius, Rev. Jonas, 34, 35 
Minuit, Peter, 25, 29, 3 1, 32, 34, 36-40, 42, 43, 
48, 50, 51,96,97 

New Amsterdam, Incorporation of, 173 

New Amsterdam, Population of, 1^6 

New England, Complications with, 76, 80, 166 

New Netherland Company, Charter of, 17, 18 

Nine Men, Appointment ofic^'j 

Notelmann, Conrad, 50, 81, 82 

Nut ten Island, "j ^,'jG,i2i 

Op Dyck, Gysbert, 98 

Patroons, The, 44 

Pavonia, Origin of, 47 

Petition for Burgher Government, 1 64 



236 



Index 

^akerSy Persecution of^ 205 

Remundy Secretary y 81,82 
Rensselaerswijcky Contentions with^ 158-160 
Rensselaerswijcky Foundation of, 46, 47, 84 
Robinson, Rev. John, 1 9 
Rolandson, Adam, c^i^, 58-62 

Schools and Schoolmasters^ 1 96— 1 99 

South River y The, 17, 23, 46, 96, 131, 182 

Stadt HuySy 'The, 200 

States General, T'he, 18, 20, 21, 43, 93 

'Treaty with Indians, 116, 133 
Twelve Men, Appointment of the, 106 

Van der Donck, Adriaen, 161, 171 

Van Dincklagen, Lubbertus, 86, 87, 128, 133, 134, 

151, 153,170 
Van Dyck, Hendrick, 134, 140, 151, 153, 170 
Van Rensselaer, Jeremias, 217 
Van Rensselaer, Kilian, 46, 54 
Van Slechtenhorst, Brant, 159, 170, 171 
Van Tienhoven, 104, 171 
Van Twiller, W outer, c^'^, 54, 70-88 
Vriesendale, 99 

JVaal-boght, The, 143 



237 



Index 

Walloons^ The, 23, 30 

West India Company, The, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 

White-Hall, The, 211 
Willett, Thomas, 168 



238 



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